Lucian Bran – Back to Wellhead
In my hometown, where the city meets the forest, people meet themselves in an almost ritually circumstance. The wellheads at the edge of the city offer to community the opportunity to relive this sacred gesture of going towards the water. Each source has its messengers, people who speak of its qualities, sometimes proven in laboratory tests. Carried home in large plastic containers, offer those who live in apartment buildings a natural purification. The water gains a particular meaning which goes above and beyond its simple material existence. Coming from the mountains, it is always there for people; it flows and waits to be drunk.
As common as it seems for the ones that go there regularly, as strange it looks for the unfamiliar eye. Together with the sources, the water devotees became part of the peripheral scenery of the city.
Astra, source I, winter
Rabbit source III, winter
Old Road, source I, winter
Solomon’s Rocks, source II, winter
The Nature – seemingly being ignored within the people’s pilgrimage for getting the pure water – she is in fact the one that ignores, that passes over. And that is obvious since the nature is beyond the images. Still, Lucian’s photos are not a naturalistic elegy, as they are not documentary images. Yet, I believe that both Ruskin and The Bechers’ would perfectly understand the “back to wellhead” statement. – Matei Câltia
Astra, source I, spring
Astra, source I, spring
Solomon’s Rocks, source III, autumn
Lake Noua, source I, summer
More images on www.lucianbran.ro. Lucian Bran (1981) graduated National University of Arts Bucharest, Photography class in 2010. Currently he’s living and working in Brasov, Romania. Represented by Posibila Gallery, Bucharest.