Fine Art 3rd place winner

"Through a land of deserts and pits" is a series of self-portraits developed while traveling from the Atacama Desert in Chile to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, in the summer of 2018. The project follows a personal journey – both physical and spiritual – and lies at the border between photography and performance.

By immersing myself into various environments – from sand, grass, stone, salt and water, to llareta plants dating from thousands of years ago – I was able to perceive the landscapes in a sensory way and also to become more conscious about the feelings and inner shifts which occurred during these experiences. Choosing to wear the full-body costumes, I intentionally deprived myself of the sense of sight, which allowed me to gain a closer interaction with the textures, smells, sounds and even the taste of the natural elements I encountered (such as the salt in Uyuni).

The whole experience was accompanied by a process of acclimatization, due to the high altitudes which varied from 2500 to 4500 meters, inducing symptoms like shortness of breath, headache, increased heart rate or fatigue. Intrinsically, I was withstanding a similar process, which translated itself through paradoxal feelings of fear and awe.

I am a 26-year-old visual artist and freelance photographer interested in Visual Anthropology and Storytelling, constantly looking for new ways to nurture self-expression. In 2016 I graduated from the Bucharest National University of Arts, Photography and Video department, and in 2018 I successfully completed an MA degree in Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology and Folklore at the University of Bucharest.

My artistic roots can be found during my childhood and adolescence, when I engaged with painting, music and writing. At the age of 13 I came across the works of Magnum photographers, which later became a representative moment in my evolution as a visual artist.

As a photographer, I tend to pursue a fine art approach to each genre I focus on at a specific time. I situate my work somewhere near the thin line between reality and fiction, easily floating from one side to another. In the last couple of years, I have withdrawn inspiration from Cultural Anthropology, exploring themes such as family, identity, dynamics of tradition or body.