WHO?
I live in Bucharest, Romania, I’m 36 and I’m addicted to photography. Especially to street photography. When I was a boy, I dreamed of becoming a choreographer or to work in the music industry, but I ended up graduating from the Academy of Economic Studies. A total loss of time. I didn’t like it at all. As a student, I started working as an editor and voice over for a radio station, and after graduation I found a job in television. Again, a creative medium.
Nowadays I’m still in television, working as a video editor. I like to believe that photography is the best medicine, at hand and quite cheap. And it goes very well with music. I am one of the administrators of the international street photography group OnSpot. During all this time I had the pleasure to promote and learn from many excellent photographers.
I am quite critical with myself when it comes to photography and sometimes this worked against me. I even wanted to quit taking photographs, but I couldn’t.
WHAT?
In the beginning, I felt attracted by the more graphic and dynamic elements in street photography. Little by little, I became more interested in moments, moods etc, so I started doing that, trying to observe human behaviour, taking into account the repeatable cycles. After all, we have similar behaviours much of the time and you can anticipate certain moments.
I don’ t have a plan in my mind when I go out in the streets. But I always look for the details that are around us, the weirdness of situations, and the beauty of ordinary things. Lately I organized my photos and I realized that a few series came alive in my work.
Variety is very important to me, because I often get bored with what I am doing. So I need a fresh mind. That’s why my “Prismagination” project (on going) is so important to me.
If I would have to describe in one word what I am searching for when I am walking, it would be serendipity.
WHEN?
Whenever I have the time. You can’t do something that you love just from time to time. You must invest resources and passion. I always carry my camera with me because I can’t describe to anyone what have I have seen unless I show them the picture. Even during COVID lockdown, I photographed from my window for several months. When I am in a good mood, but especially when I am not, because photography is one of the things that can always drag me to the surface.
WHERE?
I would like to say New York or maybe London, but I live in Bucharest, Romania and I mostly shoot here. And I don’t think it’s bad at all, because it forces me to find interesting moments or things to shoot in a common place, which I am used to. Otherwise, I think it’s very important to travel a lot, to see how people live, to observe other habits, to see things from different points of view. We have to explore to be able to change our way of perceiving the world around us. So, taking into consideration that every place is photographable, my response to the question “Where?” is “everywhere”.
WHY?
Because it’s the best therapy for me. Every time I had a tough period, this worked for me. I am interested in the interactions of people in the street and their behaviour, the way they act and react in different situations.
Because I want to see the world like a child would see it. When we are kids we are curious about everything, we ask questions, we want to see what’s hidden around the corner. This curiosity helps for a better creativity.
Because I can show my vulnerability through photography and with every picture that we make, and of course show to other people, we wipe the dust from the mirror we are looking at.
Also, it makes me more ambitious in general, not only in photography. It makes me work harder.
