Călărași, Romania
In the spring of 2020, I collaborated with Commun’s, an independent designer, to photograph Romanians in the countryside around Călărași, Romania. With the help of local translators, we were looking for some locals on the road to collaborate with and appear in the photos. There are very few young adults in the countryside, and their lifestyle is mainly based around agriculture and farming. We captured their gestures, faces and living environment. As some Roma communities are living in underprivileged conditions, outsiders often hold prejudices against them. I captured the love between the family members, their hard-working spirit and friendliness, hoping to shake these negative stereotypes.
Commun’s was inspired by Comme des Garçons’ way of creating pictures in the early years. We try to break the boundaries between fashion and fine-art and make fashion images carry more cultural content. In this project, we tried to blend Commun’s clothing with the clothing and lifestyle of the local people. We made this photo story to pay our respect to these neglected people.
