Romania in 2 pictures

I had read most of the tour guides about Romania and each time I was intrigued by their pictures shown on the front cover. The Lonely Planet  book guide has a picture of Biertan, a beautiful former Saxon village located not far away from Sighisoara. The Rough Guides maybe was not so  inspired and displays the Russian Church from Bucharest; after all, when you try to sell a book about a country you should try to promote it with the most distinctive flavor of it or the Russian Church is far away from this. The Insight Guide book boasts on its front cover one of the most famous landmarks of Romania: the Bran castle also known by the foreigners as Dracula Castle. And the list remains open for many other book guides about Romania.

As a Romanian tour guide and photographer I asked myself which picture I would use for a cover of a Romanian guide book. Instantly I looked through my pictures and after one hour I was still confused. A landscape? Romania boasts the impressive Carpathian arch with beautiful mountains, valleys, glacial lakes and green pines. An image of a medieval citadel, like Sighisoara, Sibiu or Brasov? Or maybe a picture of the vivid and tumultuous city of Bucharest? What about the rural side of Romania, so well preserved in many parts of the country? A horse-drawn cart passing by a traditional haystack would be perfect and would express so well the rural life from Romania. I thought this would be a perfect image. But not quite. Because I realized it would be impossible to capture the flavor of a country in one picture. So I need two of them; one for the front and another one for the back. But which ones?

In the spring of 2012 I had the chance of finding these two pictures. The first one I had in my mind for about 2 years but because I was extremely picky it was very hard to find the image. It is a road sign, a simple sign saying “No carts”. I wanted it to be located in the country side, to be clean and new, to be photographed on a sunny day with a blue sky and some fluffy clouds. Finally after months of searching I discovered it in Bucovina. Maybe it would have been better to catch a horse-drawn cart passing by the sign but I didn’t have enough time to wait for it. Maybe next time.

The next picture, the one for the front page should illustrate the beauty of the locals, of the Romanians and their traditions. Some time ago I’ve been asked what I like most about Romania. I said I like the mountains and the women. ‘Yes, but tell me just one’ my traveler asked me again. Then I answered I like the beautiful women on top of the Carpathian Mountains. Of course, I know and I’ve seen how beautiful the women can be in other countries, especially in the eastern Europe but when I saw a beautiful tall young blonde, slim, with long legs, smooth skin and big round eyes I new this is my cover. And not just because she was beautiful but on top of all these qualities she was dressed in the traditional costume of Maramures, one of the most beautiful all over Romania. Her scarf wrapped around her face was accentuating even more her beauty. Right away I pulled over my car and told her, almost ordering her, being afraid not to loose my image for the cover, to stop. And I was right. She is the perfect cover, a beautiful Romanian woman wearing with pride a traditional costume. Now all I need is to write my guide book

by Daniel Gheorghita
Licensed Tour Guide

Reasons for taking pictures

Somebody asked me the other days what do I do with my pictures. ‘Same thing you do with a painting you had bought some time ago’ – flashed the answer in my mind but never to be said out loud, in this way avoiding even the slightest form of sarcasm. Later on, while I was driving on the Trnsylvanian hills, this question came to my mind and I realized the right question is not what do I do with my pictures but what do the pictures do with me.

The photography is a hobby/profession that can change you dramatically. It can open your eyes and make you see deeper than just surfaces and appearances. It makes you an observer of everything that surrounds you. And these two things are the most important changes the photography did and still does for me. Before that I was completely unaware of the things that were living right next to me, of all the small details my eyesight was able to capture. My camera came with a magical frame that is always present in front my eyes and makes me notice everything. I thought that light was just something that makes it possible to see. I thought that birds were all gray, but in fact they are richly colored. I only knew a few kinds of flowers, but after photographing them, I became interested and learned that in a very small area of the Carpathian Mountains there are more than 1600 species.

Like most of the photographers I started with landscape. I wanted to capture the beauty of nature, the amazing blue sky with its white and fluffy clouds, the tall and craggy peaks, the turmoil of a waterfall, the tranquility of a field of sun flowers or the menacing precipices. Now, most of these pictures end up as screensaver on my laptop, many times making me to look at them and admire them like a father admires his children. They bring me peace for a few seconds or minutes and even I end up to be bemused by the magical beauty of some pictures.

Then I started to take pictures of different tourist landmarks, some of them more or less famous, more or less interesting. Once I had started doing this I noticed the beautiful architectural elements and I was curious to find out what type of architecture it was; so I went back home and I studied till I’ve learnt them. In the end the photography is the one that made me to go and study and not a teacher.

As a joke, I remember one of my tourists who came to Romania for a cultural tour asking me ‘Daniel, why do you keep taking pictures of each place we visit, don’t you already have pictures of this place?’ I told my nice tourist that I have hundreds of pictures of this place but never at this exact hour. She was a little bit confused.

Once I was in the cities for tourist attractions I noticed that many things happen around me. So I was introduced to the street photography. It is here where I started to chase the action, the events and the life; a kid running after a ball, a girl playing splashing the water of a  fountain, a man taking a breath on a bench or two lovers kissing themselves. After a while I realized most of the people like to be photographed so I started to interact with them. And BANG, I was hit! The people are the most important subject in photography. They are so divers and their feelings can be so different that a photographer will never be able to capture everything about people. Never. And sometimes these pictures can be very intense, they can bring happiness but they can bring sadness and even tears.

In 2006 I was touring with a lovely retired Canadian couple, both of them in the 70s. I asked them if they want to take a detour for a better view of the rural area and receiving an affirmative reply we dived into a forgotten territory. The road, or better said a dirt track, took us through mountains and old villages. At the outskirts of a village we noticed an old Romanian couple, also in the 70s, plowing with an iron plow dragged by two oxen. We pulled over and talked with them. The old Romanian couple told us about their hard life, their small pensions or about the farm work. The whole story was told with sadness but they never lost their dignity. My tourists, deeply touched, gave them some money. I was touched too, as I saw in these two people my grandparents who worked exactly like them. Once back in the car, we all had tears in our eyes. The pictures I took then, showing two old people, still working in the 70s, is one of my precious memories.

Beautiful women, which in Romania are easy to find,;; plentiful,’’’ every where you look,;;; in every café, shop or even in hay fields.

I continued to take picture of old people, different craftsmen, poor families, events or beautiful women which in Romania are easy to find, they are every where you look, in every cafe, restaurant, shop or even in hay fields. Each time I try to create a mood with a a different approach or I try to take advantage of light. I try to accentuate the wrinkles of an old woman like I would try to find there a trace of the hard life or like I would try to bring to surface a secret long time forgotten. Sometimes I fail. Recently I was walking in a city of Transylvania with another photographer and we noticed a very beautiful young woman sitting on a bench. We started to ask ourselves whether to ask her the permission or to “steal” a shot of her. I took a couple of shots but just one of them proved good enough. I thought I managed to capture, beside her beauty, the thoughts, the feeling and even her slight sadness. Back home I realized pretty much all I had hoped to capture didn’t appear in my pictures. The young lady remained forever shrouded by mystery, a total enigma, a question never to be answered, a moment on a bench. And that’s why I like so much to take pictures, even when I fail I get something, I end up with a result I had never expected.

To conclude, I can say the photography made me to see the details, sometimes the soul, the stories behind the eyes or the funny world. And I really like it.

by Daniel Gheorghita
Licensed Tour Guide