Fine Art nominee

When I grew up in Romania, I found myself attracted to the Virgin Mary. I grew up among many religious icons - interpretations and representations of the Divine, but while crucifixions scared me, the image of Mary was reassuring; mysterious and beautiful, complex, vulnerable and strong - she was the archetypal girlfriend. Eastern Europe was a place where Knowledge was embedded in religious imagery. There was a sacredness in icons.

Over the years, my relationships with women preserved most of that initial awe. Women have always played a pivotal role in my life. To this day, I believe that beauty (spiritual and physical) is among the highest forms of Truth. To this day I believe that the complexities and contradictions of the Universe find refuge primarily in the feminine spirit. Women seem to feel and know better. They are our manuals for living.

We need Beauty in order to survive. In this series, I wanted to make sure I would never lose the connections that helped me survive and grow all these years - my childhood’s sacred places: The Eternal Feminine and photography - all turned into nourishment for a life lived as an art form.

Florin Ion Firimita is a visual artist, educator, and writer. He took his first photograph at the age of three using a Soviet made Zenith camera. His interest in image making could be traced back to his father’s modest amateur photo lab in Bucharest, Romania, where he was entrusted with mixing chemicals, developing film, and printing black-and-white images at the age of six.

After his parents' death, he continued to study painting and drawing and kept taking photographs while holding jobs such as welder, grave digger, janitor, window decorator and security guard.

After relocating to the United States in 1990, Florin’s photography, mixed media work and writing have been featured in galleries and art magazines in Argentina, France, England, and the U.S. The Art of Leaving, a film about his art, was released in 2003. Based on almost 3,000 pages of journal entries, the film took three years to make and was the official selection of seven international film festival such as Santa Fe, Durango, New York, Chicago, and also Montreal’s 23rd Festival International du Film Sur L’Art. A second documentary, Dream Cages, filmed by Jeff Teitler during the 2020/ 2022 pandemic, is currently in the works.