honorable mention
Maria Bode united kingdom
title
Gypsy childhood
They live isolated from the rest of population, having their own style of living, doing different activities to secure their income and having their own rules of organization. Among themselves they are honest and they have their own system of conflict resolution, in the form of consensus-based Romani courts (known as Kris).
The sad truth is that in Romania, Romani people are associated with poverty, and are accused of high rates of crime and behaviors that are perceived by the rest of the population as being antisocial or inappropriate. Partly for this reason, discrimination against the Romani people has continued to the present day.
What the government is trying to make now is to do school more appealing to this population, their situation of marginalization would gradually end, and they would learn the skills needed to challenge the discrimination they are faced with all over Europe.
Traditional Romani families educate their children by allowing them to participate in all family activities. Children observe, join in and gradually assume a share of responsibility for the extended household. There is no initiation ceremony and no formal testing of acquired skills or knowledge.
School is seen as a Gadje (non-Romani) institution. It represents everything that outsiders stand for and everything that separates Roma from outsiders: rigid rules; obedience towards a person in authority who is not part of the family; and, perhaps the most difficult of all, separation of children from the rest of the family for long hours. The parents keep their children close at all times and teach them everything they know; the boys learn traditional trades from the men and the girls learn domestic skills as well as the mother's profession.
Growing old doesn’t mean you..
All this big passion for photography started when I was 13 years old, I was living at that time in a very small village in Romania, with no more than 150 residents. I got my first camera as a gift from my parents and very quickly fell completely in love with photography. I spent much of my spare time walking around taking photographs to all the wild surroundings and also to the people of that community. I still do this and I feel that my whole childhood can be captured in one image. All the photographs that I sent to you are done in that place.
I am 28 years old now and my love for photography brought me to live in London where I thought I will be much close to see my dream becoming real, I studied photography at London Collage of Contemporary Arts and fell that my knowledge are wider now.
In the end I can say that photography took control of my life and gave me a sense and self confidence, I think there is nothing else in this world I could do with more love and dedication and I will never stop working hard and believing one day I will call myself a documentary photographer.
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entry description
The story behind the photographs is of a gypsy community from North-West of Romania.They live isolated from the rest of population, having their own style of living, doing different activities to secure their income and having their own rules of organization. Among themselves they are honest and they have their own system of conflict resolution, in the form of consensus-based Romani courts (known as Kris).
The sad truth is that in Romania, Romani people are associated with poverty, and are accused of high rates of crime and behaviors that are perceived by the rest of the population as being antisocial or inappropriate. Partly for this reason, discrimination against the Romani people has continued to the present day.
What the government is trying to make now is to do school more appealing to this population, their situation of marginalization would gradually end, and they would learn the skills needed to challenge the discrimination they are faced with all over Europe.
Traditional Romani families educate their children by allowing them to participate in all family activities. Children observe, join in and gradually assume a share of responsibility for the extended household. There is no initiation ceremony and no formal testing of acquired skills or knowledge.
School is seen as a Gadje (non-Romani) institution. It represents everything that outsiders stand for and everything that separates Roma from outsiders: rigid rules; obedience towards a person in authority who is not part of the family; and, perhaps the most difficult of all, separation of children from the rest of the family for long hours. The parents keep their children close at all times and teach them everything they know; the boys learn traditional trades from the men and the girls learn domestic skills as well as the mother's profession.
Growing old doesn’t mean you..
about the photographer
The meaning of photography for me is more than a captured moment, it is a memory saved for next generations, o strong visual message that speaks a thousand words to a thousand different people.All this big passion for photography started when I was 13 years old, I was living at that time in a very small village in Romania, with no more than 150 residents. I got my first camera as a gift from my parents and very quickly fell completely in love with photography. I spent much of my spare time walking around taking photographs to all the wild surroundings and also to the people of that community. I still do this and I feel that my whole childhood can be captured in one image. All the photographs that I sent to you are done in that place.
I am 28 years old now and my love for photography brought me to live in London where I thought I will be much close to see my dream becoming real, I studied photography at London Collage of Contemporary Arts and fell that my knowledge are wider now.
In the end I can say that photography took control of my life and gave me a sense and self confidence, I think there is nothing else in this world I could do with more love and dedication and I will never stop working hard and believing one day I will call myself a documentary photographer.
back to gallery