The Czech version of this article was published on 5th August 2015. Somehow, I forgot (or was too lazy) to translate it. But now is the time to remediate this mistake.
I have to admit that when I attended my first post-apocalyptic festival six months ago — The World After the Fall: Back Then on the Platform — I was thrilled. When news of another similarly themed event broke, it was a no-brainer. I wanted to enjoy the event rather than work through it, so I didn’t even try to arrange to be the official photographer, and I didn’t plan on bringing a camera with me. That ended up changing a bit, but more on that later.
Costumes were mandatory at the event, so for the first time in ten years, I made a costume that wasn’t just about gathering the weirdest pieces from my closet — I had to put in some actual work with my own hands — and I enjoyed it a lot. The quality of the other costumes I’ve seen there hasn’t disappointed; many wouldn’t look out of place in Mad Max movies. Perhaps that’s why there was later a call for extras for Drsný spasitel, a fan film, a fan film based on the book by Miroslav Žamboch.
But it wasn’t just the costumes that shaped the overall atmosphere; it was also the abandoned missile base where the entire event took place, as well as the growing fleet of cars modified to look much more Mad Max-esque. Add to that a few stalls selling gear and food (grasshoppers, worms, and the like), and the atmosphere was nearly perfect.
Since most of the organisers and visitors are LARP players, it was clear there would be plenty of gameplay. For one thing, on Saturday morning, there was a battle between the Unity and the Orphans, two “tribes” from The World After the Fall. Moreso, throughout the event, bounties were being offered for various wanted characters among the players, and anyone could become a bounty hunter.
All in all, it was an amazing experience, and I hope it will be this and more next year. We even caught the attention of some media outlets; I saw at least two newspaper articles about it.
As I proclaimed at the beginning, back to photography. I didn’t go to this event to take photos, but I changed my mind at the last minute. I’ve been toying with the idea of switching to smaller, lighter photography gear for some time now, and here I borrowed an older Fujifilm X-M1 from Čert. The camera is pleasantly small, but it lacks a viewfinder, its speed isn’t the best, and it didn’t perform very well in low light either. Still, the results aren’t the worst (I’ve taken worse photos with better gear). Despite the results, the Fuji has piqued my interest, and I’m thinking about where to borrow a newer model, like the X-T10.
I also realised during the event that I’m already hooked on this photo-documenting thing; it took me almost the entire Friday to realise I was just wandering around (searching for scenes to capture) instead of sitting down somewhere and getting involved in the action myself.