Lomography

Railway Station of Nice
written by vicuna on June 24th, 2009 , 7 comments (5 votes)

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Raiway stations are all about traveling, about people coming to or leaving a place, traveling on very short distances or making a huge continental travel by train. Did you ever notice how special the mood of a railway station can be? And how impressive the railway buildings can be with sometimes amazing architectural constructions dating back to the XIXth century?

Well, the railway station of Nice is one of these places and I decided to make a little shooting session with my Lubitel there and some b&w film (I took a roll of Lomo BW & Rollei Retro 100, wanted some sharp & contrasted b&w mood for that…)
Unfortunately, when I went there in the afternoon, there weren’t so much people in there, only a few passengers waiting for their train… so I couldn’t really shoot what I intended in the first place, that means people on travel…. but I realized that the building, the glass roof and the railway landscape had some amazing forms and structures to offer to my eyes and Lubitel.

So I focused more on the space, the building, the cables, the rails and was almost in a kind of geometrical/structural delirium when my second roll was already finished… but it was perhaps better that I took only 2 rolls of film, because if I had more I would have shot endless until there was no more film left!!! :)))

A word for the historical background of he building (yes, I know… I’m a history teacher and can’t avoid to talk about history, even if it’s sometimes boring for others… ;)))))
The building was constructed 1867, only 7 years after Nice became french, kind of symbol of the integration of this “new” city to the french empire (France was an empire at this time, with the emperor Napoleon the 3rd).
At this time, the railway station was really outside of the city, more on the countryside… because to build such huge places needed space you couldn’t find inside the existing cities. And for the smoke pollution, it was thought better to put it a bit far away from the city (and it’s the case of most railway stations from the XIXth century). But now, the railway station is really in the middle of the town!!! That shows how the city grew up in 150 years, and it’s quiet impressive!!

The glass & metal roof structure is an amazing architectural achievement and is a fascinating photographic subject!