Nadine Truong - my official artist profile -alivenotdead.com

Home Sweet Home…

Got back into town Sunday eve. Had two seats on the flight home. That was great! It would have been even greater if the movies had actually played on everyone’s TV. It was down for 70% of the time. At least I could stretch out and take a good nap. Ha! Take that, Swiss Airline!

Finally finished looking through all my pictures from my trip. Today, I would like to conclude my observations on Kosovo by posting a few more. I promise after today, you’ll have lovely boudoir photographs waiting for you. ☺

SKENA UP, the festival for which I traveled to Pristina, is in its seventh year. It grew from a small group of artists wanting to exhibit their work to each other to a legitimate organization with private as well as government sponsors. The US state department actually brought myself and two other Americans over to participate in this festival. We met with Emelia Puma, the US Embassy Principal Public Affairs Officer, and I learned a great deal about the US involvement in Kosovo. Kosovo is still considered a danger zone (which means US Embassy employed people cannot bring any dependents under 21 years over apparently), but that status will most likely change rather quickly. To tell you the truth, I’ve never felt so safe walking the streets alone. Not that I did it alone many times, but I never really felt scared. I mentioned in my previous post that about 65% of all citizens are under age 25. They are heavily promoting the younger generation. They even have a country-wide logo for that!

With that in mind, I set out to find faces in their 30’s and early 40’s. I must say that it did prove to be a rather difficult task.

I would like to present to you my last installment of Balkan portraits and street photography. Out of the nearly 1000 pictures I have taken, I would like to show you a group of pictures I feel represent my impressions of Kosovo: A country, which still feels the effects of war and is slowly rising…and whose hope relies on the unjaded youth.

Pristina’s older generation congregating in the middle of the town’s square.

A woman in thought.

Another demonstration for higher pay. Kosovo’s Youth demanding action.

Pristina tore down a school in order to make room for a cathedral. Kosovo’s population is 95% Muslim. This and the presence of Christmas trees is an attempt to integrate into the western world and appease the EU.