Fine Art nominee

In a world where images have become another type of pollution, I am interested in creating a unique type of reality removed from the social and political unrest that have been defining our daily existence. In this light, photography is not necessarily a form of escapism, but a poetic tool employing metaphors in order to ask questions and deepen the Mystery. Way before the Internet, the French writer Andre Malraux talked about "the Imaginary Museum". Each of us carry within a sacred, portable reliquary, a room of our own. During the past two and a half years, our existence has been rattled by disquiet, doubt, fear, violence, death and injustice. We have been asked to live inside our dream cages while finding the strength to break away from them. In this light, I am interested in how the subconscious becomes visible through our narratives and how art could be a positive force in a world whose humanistic values are constantly under siege. I have always believed in parallel universes. I hope that my images could sometimes point to the hidden portals between them.

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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.