He studied documentary photography in London. Upon his
\nreturn to Romania, he was set to rediscover the world he left behind using the
\ncamera, whether he was taking pictures or filming. This is the trigger point for
\nthe Working Site in the time of the pandemic, a project that took off thanks
\nto the fortnightly lockdown Ionut Teoredascu had been under, in his flat in an
\napartment house. Ionut immortalized construction works for the neighboring
\nblock of flats. Then the Pandemic in the countryside followed, it was another
\nproject consisting of snapshots of village life which had remained unchanged,
\nsave for the ear-loop mask people living there had to wear. But what compelled
\nour attention as regards Ionut Teoderascu was a project for which Ionut
\nTeoderascu scooped the golden award in the People\/Family category as part of
\nthe 2020 Budapest International Photo Awards, titled Nobody’s home.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ionu\u0163 Teoderascu introduced himself as a documentary photographer.
\nHe told us how the project took off. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ionut Teoderascu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The short-reel documentary titled
\nThere’s nobody home was released in April 2019. So it was then that my idea
\ntook shape. I called in at my grandmother’s house. It had been uninhabited in
\nthe last ten years and it was more like a curiosity for me, to take a look
\ninside. Once I entered the house, I noticed all my grandmother’s stuff was
\nthere, things were almost untouched. It was like a capsule of time. Then I
\nreturned there with my father, since I asked him to tell the story of their childhood,
\nwhat parents had been like when they were still alive, since I, for one, did
\nnot meet the grandpa on my father’s side, he died at the age of 44. Then I got
\nback again, this time with my aunties, I asked them to tell me more and that’s
\nhow I discovered a part of my grandmother’s past and I said to myself the best
\nthing is to tell the whole story in a documentary short-reel, so that I may
\nblend the image with the sounds of the house as I made recordings when I went,
\nwith my parents or my aunties, to my grandmother’s house. I made the
\ndocumentary short-reel late last year.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The film was received better than he expected. Or at
\nleast that is what Ionut Teoderascu told us. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The first time I launched it in Romania it was part of a Takeover, it was posted on the Instagram page of the magazine titled
\nIt is only a magazine and it was there that I laid out the story for the
\nfirst time ever, but it had been released in Great Britain before, it was
\nposted on a platform dedicated to documentary photography. It was launched
\nthere. With this project, I also participated in a competition before the year
\nended; a photo album featuring students was posted there, one of the first
\nalbums Canon has made, and it was there that the project took off, then I
\nparticipated in a contest in Budapest where I won the Gold Vibe, the golden
\naward, with this project. Subsequently it was also posted on other channels,
\nhere, in Romania.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ionut Teoderascu taking
\nus through the story of the film.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The sensation you get is that you’re
\nstepping in another time. As soon as you step into the house, you feel those
\nimages that affect you a lot, emotionally, you see crumbling walls or
\nspiderwebs, very big. It is that kind of image you wouldn’t want to see,
\nespecially if you have a personal connection to the family who lived there yet
\nit is an area where the history of a family has been very well-preserved, since
\nthe place we live in, after all defines us and the whole time granny lived
\nthere, she used to live there on a permanent basis for the last 20 years, she
\ncollected all the things she needed, she arranged them, she somehow got ready
\nfor her death as well, she had prepared everything for that already. And you
\ncould see they were still there. I found pills, I found letters granny had kept
\nthere. And all that stuff speaks volumes about the person who used to live there.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The film takes us to the village of Craiesti, Galati
\ncounty, the village of the filmmaker’s childhood, where we’re about to visit a
\nspecial house.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ionut Teoderascu:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The house is atypical for that area,
\nwhere the houses are sort of smaller, there are two-room houses, but the
\ngranny’s house does have a history of its own. It was purpose-built, it was supposed to house the administration, the
\nprefecture or the town hall and was afterwards sold to my grandfather. It has
\ntall doors, the materials are very good, they are made of solid wood and was
\nbuilt on top of a hill, the view of the village is very picturesque it is old
\nenough, it is a hundred years old, or sort of. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ionut Teoderascu once again, this time
\nextending an invitation to all of us.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I encourage everybody to watch the
\ndocumentary short-reel, you can access it on my website, at teoderascu.com
\nor on YouTube or on the Facebook page as I think this documentary somehow tells
\nthe story of several families, guiding us as to how we should look at a
\nfamily’s past, in a bid to get everybody understanding the idea that a family’s
\npast is here and there and it is romanticized by those who are still alive.
\nBecause we want to know that our parents lived a good life. And, perhaps, that
\nis exactly why, after they die, we try to reconstruct the past, rendering it
\nmore romanticized. And that’s what I speak about in my documentary short-reel,
\napart from the whole story about my grandparents that I tell there.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For those who are interested, in Zalau, the
\nphotographs made by Ionut Teoderascu are brought together in the exhibition
\ntitled the The faces of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Retrieving a family’s past in a remote Romanian village<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":136533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42520],"tags":[43291,35344,32037,43292,43290],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-136532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-romania","tag-crumbling","tag-documentary","tag-family","tag-past","tag-short-reel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n