Fine Art nominee

Two years after I was diagnosed with severe Postpartum Depression, I felt utterly deprived of Nature.

I found it difficult to connect with it, as if someone – or something – had unplugged me from my own roots. I was left almost untouchable, unreachable, and my heart was in grief after the loss of my former relationship with the natural world.

I began to seek relief in people and the urban, plunging myself into the realm of the rushed streets, coffee shops and never-ending amounts of work. When I would leave the city, I would no longer feel joy in the quietness of the countryside, the mountains or the sea. What would excite me before was now tasteless. I missed my connection with the sun, the earth, the wind. I missed the way they would engage me with a part of myself I thought I had lost forever.

And then I decided to leave.

I found it easy to choose Iceland. I always imagined I would find a different kind of landscape there – one of primordiality, rawness, otherworldliness. A scenery that would release the wildest emotions inside me and would make me live fear and anxiety, awe and gratitude

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 In the last couple of years, I have withdrawn inspiration from Cultural Anthropology, exploring themes such as family, identity, dynamics of tradition or body.