Dokumentarni esej // Documentary essay

Ne vem, če je takšna celotna Nova Gorica ali le moja soseska, ampak med dokumentiranjem skozi fotografijo sem ugotovila, da živim v mestu duhov. V to sosesko sem se preselila v sredini leta 2020. Zame nima nekega prav posebnega pomena – izbrala sem jo, ker se je zdela najbolj privlačna za moje študentsko življenje. To sosesko sem obiskala že pred pandemijo in vedno je bila umirjena in tiha. Vendar šele, ko sem tukaj zares začela živeti, sem ugotovila, kako zares tiha je. Med dokumentiranjem te soseske skozi objektiv fotoaparata, nisem nikoli uspela najti otrok, ki bi se igrali na igriščih ali srečala več kot dva človeka na pločniku ob istem času. Nikoli nisem bila zares pozorna na to, kako malo ljudi je zunaj, dokler se nisem lotila te naloge. Zanimivo je, da se v radiju 100 metrov od hiše, v kateri živim, nahajajo dom upokojencev, manjša univerza in vrtec. Vsakodnevno grem na sprehod in nikoli ne vidim nobenega, ki bi šel notri ali ven iz doma upokojencev ali univerze. Le nekajkrat sem videla otroke na igrišču vrtca. Čeprav je čudno, verjamem, da v tem primeru COVID predstavlja velik del razloga za »pomanjkanja ljudi«. Malo ljudi daje celotni soseski občutek pomanjkanja osebnosti in duše. Ni glasnih zvokov, pravzaprav – hrupa sploh ni. Soseska ima zares melanholično vzdušje, še posebej med jesenjo in pozimi. Po drugi strani pa ima ta soseska odlično lokacijo. Manj kot 10 minut je hoje do centra Nove Gorice in 300 metrov stran se nahajajo nakupovalno središče, restavracije, gledališče itd. Čeprav bi se z bežnim pogledom na to sosesko marsikdo vprašal »Zakaj bi živel tukaj?« – ko pogledam Novo Gorico kot celoto – je življenje v tem predelu popolnoma smiselno.

// I don’t know if this is the whole of Nova Gorica or just my neighborhood, but while documenting through photography, I found out that I live in a ghost town. I moved to this neighborhood in the middle of 2020. It doesn’t have any very special meaning to me – I chose it because it seemed the most appealing to my student life. I visited this neighborhood before the pandemic and it was always calm and quiet. But it wasn’t until I started living here that I realized how really quiet it is. While documenting this neighborhood through a camera lens, I never managed to find children playing on playgrounds or meeting more than two people on the sidewalk at the same time. I never really paid attention to how few people were outside until I took on this task. Interestingly, within a radius of 100 meters from the house where I live, there is a retirement home, a small university and a kindergarten. I go for a walk every day and I never see anyone going in or out of the retirement home or the university. I only saw the children on the kindergarten playground a few times. Although strange, I believe that in this case, COVID is a big part of the reason for the “lack of people”. Few people give the whole neighborhood a sense of lack of personality and soul. There are no loud sounds, in fact – no noise at all. The neighborhood has a really melancholy atmosphere, especially between fall and winter. On the other hand, this neighborhood has a great location. It is less than 10 min. walk to the center of Nova Gorica and 300 meters away there is a shopping center, restaurants, theater, etc. Although with a glance at this neighborhood, many would ask “Why would I live here?” – but when I look at Nova Gorica as a whole – life in this area makes perfect sense to me.