I have had many different jobs in four countries. I worked in public administration, in customer support, in IT, in NGOs, in translations, at the European Commission, in a book store, in a bar, I was a volunteer and also spreaded advertisment flyers for a short while. But photography was a constant in my life throughout the years, so I could say that this is my main activity.
Photography is a gift for me, together with writing and other ones I wil probably discover in the future. I have always been attracted to photography, but I paid real attention to this calling later in my life; it's like looking for a treasure in faraway places but it's right in your back yard. I think photography is one of the a talents I received from God and I am doing my best to use it at maximum and multiply it. I see photography as an instrument, not a purpose. There were many times when I thought that I was taking photographs in different situations, but it was in fact just the pretext for new experiences in life in which I had to learn something or work on myself, meet new people, receiving or giving away something,; it was a process that changed me and moved me deeply.
A photographer said once that you have to approach photography like an unused photographic film, allow yourself to be impregnated with what you photograph, allow yourself to be modelled, inscribed and developed. It is the only way you can really photograph, it is the only way you can see, by erasing yourself. It's like the parable of the empty vessel - only if it is emtpy it can be filled. I think that Nae Ionescu said that You see what you are, you don't see what is is. I would extrapolate that to photography: you photograph ehat you are not what it is, meaning that what you photograph says a lot about yourself.
So, what do I hpotograph?! I mostly like to photograph nature, maybe because it's where I like to find myself most of the time, with or without my camera. In the recent years my journeys have been exclusivley in Romania, especially in the mountains, woods, villages, sheepfolds or monasteries, and you can see this in my photographs. This year my job (I am a photographers for a website that promotes Timisoara) helped me rediscover my city, I fell in love with Timisoara all over again. I have seen so many beautiful details I blindly ignored for so many years. My latest photo project is about the beautiful details of Timisoara. Also during the recent years I was a volunteer photographer in Timisoara for many NGOs , social and cultural projects, local artists and initiatives, and I also wrote about these things in order to give them my support. Through these actions I discovered a fresh Timisoara full of life and healthy initiatives, full of enthusiastic people who want to do something in life, something more than complaining and whining about their condition. I photographed at weddings and christenings, especially for friends and other people I knew, and although it is not my main activity, I enjoyed being at their side in these special moments and capturing the spirit of those moments, because I like to take pictures of people who don't pay any attention to the photographer. I also have some personal projects, like 35 Ways of Seeing Myself or The Readers; you can find out more about them on my blog. I like to write here...
Last, but not least, maybe said in too many words, photography is a means to express myself and to communicate, of getting to know myslef, of contemplating and getting to know the world around me, of connecting with people and sending them an inviation to look around them, to see the bauty of the world close to us, the world that we pass by in a hurry and pay no real attention to. In a way photography is witnessing the wonder of this world. But I experience the same feelings wihtout holding he camera to my eye...
