Today I participate in WoX photo contest with the week topic: 'Underground'. More details on the contest here:
@mister-omortson/photo-of-the-week-138-or-contest-post-or-underground
My location is pretty plane, I dont have much fun to explore, in terms of caves or such stuff. But the city I am living in, has some artificial underground - in other words, the tube. Moscow and St.Petersburg were the first Russian cities introduced to this a miracle of technology, architecture and human genius. The first metro stations in the country were built and opened during the post-war boom, in the 1950s. These are real underground palaces, made of marble, with colonnades, decorated with bronze statues, frescoes, stained-glass windows... Of course, today metro stations are built differently, you can instantly distinguish modern design from vintage.
I visited Moscow a few years ago and when I had free time, I decided to check the famouse Moscow underground. It turned out to be really BIG! So... if one day you are happen to be on a visit to Moscow or St. Petersburg, do plan a separate day (or better two days) to explore the Underground. (Another good idea would be trivia: read guides to find out in advance, which stations has the most intresting design and worth looking, so you will not loose time checking everything). And now -- lets have a little photo walk.
Photos 1-2 were taken with Canon 50mm lens. I'm not sure which tube station exactly was captured here; seems 'Belorusskaya'. It has fantastic, incredible mosaics on the ceiling. I would love to present this design, but that would need a separate post, and sufficient amount of time for photo post-processing. Someday!
For comparison: here is a piece of modern station design. The name of this station is easy to remember: lamps stylized as an 'atom crystal structure' are used as the main design element. Accordingly, this is the "Mendeleevskaya" station, named after the great Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev - the inventor of the periodic table of chemical elements.
The picture itself is almost pure monochrome... but I made a special black-and-white version for @axeman 'Cityscape' WoX contest.
And the last picture - the station is named 'Otradnoye', it was built back in 1994.
Its design is simultaneously both simple, but stunningly futuristic! Reminded me of some aliens UFO, probably due to these hidden lamps. What is your impression, how do you like it?