Yvonne De Rosa – I liked everything in Romania

”On the road from Brasov to Sighisoara few people were standing there selling mushrooms. I went to talk with them trying to explain I couldn’t buy any because I was just driving around I had no chances to cook them.”

What is your relation with Romania ?
I got to know Romania through collaboration with an English NGO that works there. The first trip was more or less ten years ago when I met so many amazing people I became found of them and of the place. After that I revisited Romania few times and this last time, a couple of months ago, it was just for my pleasure and for the pleasure of going around the country and taking pictures. I always have had Romania on my map, always heard of Transylvania and it was always a place where I wanted to go.

What was your itinerary? Did you have a Romanian friend to guide you?
I visited a few times Bucharest and Baia mare and the last time I took a bit more time to drive a bit around Transylvania. I started in Timisoara and then I drove all around passing by Deva, Sibiu, Brasov, Targu Mures , Cluj-Napoca, Arad… I loved it! I was alone with no Romanian guide and they all reacted nicely, I have learned a few words in Romanian and I guess they all appreciated the effort. Obviously Romanian people are very, very amicable but not always people wanted to be photographed.

Can you tell five things that you enjoyed in Romania and five things that you didn’t?
Five things I liked: people, the countryside and the lovely typical architecture, the food, the simplicity of life.
Five things that I didn’t like: I liked everything!!! Just one thing I did not like and I hope it will change soon… it is still very, very common to be able to smoke in public places and sometimes I could not enjoy to stay on a bar or restaurant for long time… really just this the rest… I hope to come back soon for more pictures!

After having tried their mushrooms I asked how much I owed them. They were absolutely against me paying any money, they asked to have their picture posted instead.

Dacia is a Romanian car manufacturer, named for the historic region that constitutes much of present-day Romania. I personally love them!

Driving around it is easy to spot many Italian factories.

A lady outside her shop selling food.

Limousine rental.

Grand Hotel Italia in Cluj.

Cemetery in Sighisoara.

More images from Romania on her Facebook Page and more projects on www.yvonnederosa.com. After graduating in Political Science and passioned about photography Yvonne de Rosa went to study in London at the Central Saint Martin’s University of the Arts. After this experience, photography represented her main occupation “the instrument that would take me, beyond the purely aesthetic representations of the photographic medium and the study of human being.”

Her first book was about a photoghaphic series from a psychiatric hospital, where she had served on a volunteer basis for three years. She was a freelancer photographer working with English NGOs that allowed her to travel in Eastern Europe and brought her to deal with the poverty drama and the development dificulties of identity. This experience brought here the next book taht will be published in 2013.

Yvonne de Rosa was featured on Oitzarisme in 2011 with 99p Shop.