Elijah Solomon Hurwitz – Lost in Romania
I didn’t have an agenda when I arrived in Romania in May 2012. I’d been traveling for three months in other countries, and recently completed my first workshop on photojournalism in Istanbul. I was eager to put learnings into practice, and eager to engage more deeply with my surroundings and the people in them.
In Bucharest, I met a young guy who survived a Ceausescu regime orphanage and now volunteered at a church. He offered to show me the city’s darker sides: heroin addicts near the train station, Roma families packed into abandoned buildings, the sewers where street kids sometimes found shelter. But soon enough I was on a train to Transylvania, where I wandered around villages and farms, sometimes being invited into stranger’s homes for meals. In Maramures, I rented a deadbeat Opel from a junkyard and drove aimlessly around the idyllic countryside, battling asthma induced hay fever and trying not to crash the car which had barely functioning brakes.
I named this series Lost in Romania because I was literally lost most of the time while in Romania. But also because looking back now, there’s not much cohesive narrative in these images, apart from an American with a camera exploring a place he knew little about. Though, it seems to me, Romania is a country still finding its way, too. But who isn’t?
More images and other interesting projects on www.elijahsol.com. Solomon Elijah Hurwitz is an NYC based photographer keen on documentary photography with an emphasis on social and cultural issues. He has traveled in over 40 countries, and is currently represented by ZUMA Press while traveling across America to pursue various projects. His work has been published in places like TIME Magazine and Mother Jones. You can follow him also at everyhundredfeet.tumblr.com, and instagram.com/elijahsol.