Where ?

Odessa (Ukraine), set back from an avenue between the center and the bus station to the west of the city.

When ?

May 2019, during a road trip along the Black Sea, between Odessa and Istanbul.

Why ?

It was our first day in town, we wanted to inquire at the bus station to reach Chisinau, the Moldovan capital 4 days later, having read contradictory informations on the internet. While walking, I saw that I thought a small cemetery in a concrete courtyard. I found the place curious by its location, its surface and the fact that a car was parked among the graves. This curiosity prompted me to step forward a bit and take a photograph.

Immediately a man came out of a gatehouse near the entrance, which I hadn’t noticed and yelled at me… I don’t understand Ukrainian but I felt he didn’t like it. Then I realized that it was more like a depot for a tombstone seller, not a cemetery and that I had nothing to do with his business.

Anyway, it marked the tone of my odessite stay where I was not very comfortable in taking photographs with the Slavic temperament of local people.

That said, I like this image, for its atmosphere.