Anybody home?

He studied documentary photography in London. Upon his return to Romania, he was set to rediscover the world he left behind using the camera, whether he was taking pictures or filming. This is the trigger point for the "Working Site in the time of the pandemic", a project that took off thanks to the fortnightly lockdown Ionut Teoredascu had been under, in his flat in an apartment house. Ionut immortalized construction works for the neighboring block of flats. Then the "Pandemic in the countryside" followed, it was another project consisting of snapshots of village life which had remained unchanged, save for the ear-loop mask people living there had to wear. But what compelled our attention as regards Ionut Teoderascu was a project for which Ionut Teoderascu scooped the golden award in the People/Family category as part of the 2020 Budapest International Photo Awards, titled "Nobody's home."

Ionuţ Teoderascu introduced himself as a documentary photographer. He told us how the project took off.

Ionut Teoderascu:

 "The short-reel documentary titled "There's nobody home" was released in April 2019. So it was then that my idea took shape. I called in at my grandmother's house. It had been uninhabited in the last ten years and it was more like a curiosity for me, to take a look inside. Once I entered the house, I noticed all my grandmother's stuff was there, things were almost untouched. It was like a capsule of time. Then I returned there with my father, since I asked him to tell the story of their childhood, what parents had been like when they were still alive, since I, for one, did not meet the grandpa on my father's side, he died at the age of 44. Then I got back again, this time with my aunties, I asked them to tell me more and that's how I discovered a part of my grandmother's past and I said to myself the best thing is to tell the whole story in a documentary short-reel, so that I may blend the image with the sounds of the house as I made recordings when I went, with my parents or my aunties, to my grandmother's house. I made the documentary short-reel late last year."

The film was received better than he expected. Or at least that is what Ionut Teoderascu told us.

"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 "It is only a magazine" and it was there that I laid out the story for the first time ever, but it had been released in Great Britain before, it was posted on a platform dedicated to documentary photography. It was launched there. With this project, I also participated in a competition before the year ended; a photo album featuring students was posted there, one of the first albums Canon has made, and it was there that the project took off, then I participated in a contest in Budapest where I won the Gold Vibe, the golden award, with this project. Subsequently it was also posted on other channels, here, in Romania."

Ionut Teoderascu taking us through the story of the film.

"The sensation you get is that you're stepping in another time. As soon as you step into the house, you feel those images that affect you a lot, emotionally, you see crumbling walls or spiderwebs, very big. It is that kind of image you wouldn't want to see, especially if you have a personal connection to the family who lived there" yet it is an area where the history of a family has been very well-preserved, since the place we live in, after all defines us and the whole time granny lived there, she used to live there on a permanent basis for the last 20 years, she collected all the things she needed, she arranged them, she somehow got ready for her death as well, she had prepared everything for that already. And you could see they were still there. I found pills, I found letters granny had kept there. And all that stuff speaks volumes about the person who used to live there."

The film takes us to the village of Craiesti, Galati county, the village of the filmmaker's childhood, where we're about to visit a special house.

Ionut Teoderascu:

"The house is atypical for that area, where the houses are sort of smaller, there are two-room houses, but the granny's house does have a history of its own. It was purpose-built, it was supposed to house the administration, the prefecture or the town hall and was afterwards sold to my grandfather. It has tall doors, the materials are very good, they are made of solid wood and was built on top of a hill, the view of the village is very picturesque it is old enough, it is a hundred years old, or sort of. "

Ionut Teoderascu once again, this time extending an invitation to all of us.

 "I encourage everybody to watch the documentary short-reel, you can access it on my website, at teoderascu.com or on YouTube or on the Facebook page as I think this documentary somehow tells the story of several families, guiding us as to how we should look at a family's past, in a bid to get everybody understanding the idea that a family's past is here and there and it is romanticized by those who are still alive. Because we want to know that our parents lived a good life. And, perhaps, that is exactly why, after they die, we try to reconstruct the past, rendering it more romanticized. And that's what I speak about in my documentary short-reel, apart from the whole story about my grandparents that I tell there."

For those who are interested, in Zalau, the photographs made by Ionut Teoderascu are brought together in the exhibition titled the "The faces of the pandemic."