Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi

The New Year’s traditions have some of the finest winter attractions, diverse, colourful and rich in symbols and meanings. Hanganu family has preserved "The Bear's Tradition" from generation to generation, each member of the family taking part to this winter ritual tradition, gathering each year with the other neighbours from the Dofteana village. The father takes part to this tradition from the age of six years old. The traditions and the customs are an integrated part of the Romanian national conscience, as they express the ancestral wisdom of the people and are the core of their spiritual legacy.

The New Year’s traditions have some of the finest winter attractions, diverse, colourful and rich in symbols and meanings. These customs bring to the present, glimpses of pre-Christian rituals and underline the predominant agrarian lifestyle from the past, rich in symbols and meanings. Being fascinated by the idea of masculinity and the representation of men’s power, the project explores the bears’ tradition and it’s influence on people’s beliefs. They evoke death but bestow fertile life. They live in the modern era, but they summon old traditions, accompanied by their Gypsy trainer and a youth beating a tambourine-type instrument, the animals crawl through the crowd. Reaching the centre, they perform a dance until eventually, the bears fall dead on the ground. After their hearts are taken by the trainer, they return to life, theoretically, a more gentle one. Even today, more bears exist in Romania's Carpathian Mountains than any other place in Europe and this ancient rite suggests the power of man to tame nature. The traditions and the customs are an integrated part of the Romanian national conscience, as they express the ancestral wisdom of the people and are the core of their spiritual legacy.

When you feel the world is falling apart, the divorce is splitting your family and your life is turning in a way you have never thought will ever do, the best remedy is to be next the ones you love unconditionally. Asma and Aisha are sisters, and their relationship is very strong and special from many points of view. They have gone throughout similar problems, especially when they divorced in the same period and had to raise alone their children. During this time, they have become each other’s partner, and this has helped them to keep strong. They admit they find strength in each other. They are proud to be Muslims; even the problems after 9/11 have completely changed their freedom and every time when something happens in the media against Muslims, they become targets. Despite this problem, they stay strong and try not to be affected too much. In the Muslim culture, after the divorce, the father is the one who keeps the child, but in both cases the mother had the opportunity to keep their children. Because they live in a western culture, this can have a small influence, and the rules are not that strict. The...

Being fascinated by the idea of masculinity and the representation of men’s power, the project explores the bears’ tradition and it’s influence on people’s beliefs. They evoke death but bestow fertile life. They live in the modern era, but they summon old traditions, accompanied by their Gypsy trainer and a youth beating a tambourine-type instrument, the animals crawl through the crowd. Reaching the centre, they perform a dance until eventually, the bears fall dead on the ground. After their hearts are taken by the trainer, they return to life, theoretically, a more gentle one. Even today, more bears exist in Romania's Carpathian Mountains than any other place in Europe and this ancient rite suggests the power of man to tame nature. The traditions and the customs are an integrated part of the Romanian national conscience, as they express the ancestral wisdom of the people and are the core of their spiritual legacy.

The Metro is a long, winding underground ribbon that snakes around the city, like a wispy thread of Ariane on wheels, carrying millions of individuals. The metro is a natural barometer of what’s happening on the street. It is a journey without an end. A place where all people without distinction, the poor and the rich, the doctor and the sick, the employee and the laborer, the commuter and the tourist, he who eats three times a day and he who eats every three days, meet and walk by each other several times a day, they brush past each other, sometimes talk to each other, sometimes say hello, sometimes recognize each other, other times ignore each other, run into each other, smell each other, like each other or disgust each other, fall in love each over or break away from each other. In this place where some are born and some die, some laugh while some cry, some play an instrument and others sleep. Here, life flows fast.

Today marks one year since my grandmother died. I took these images straight after her death, when I came back for my Christmas holidays. I did not have a chance to see her while she was ill, and I did not know she died on the 2nd of December 2012, I only knew when I came back on the 13th of December. But, I knew in my heart that she is gone, she ‘has spoken’ to me in my dreams. The images show my first time returning in her house without having her physical presence, however I could of see her all around the house by seeing the objects she left behind, untouched. Things that waited for her to come back from the hospital, as the freshly grated walnuts waiting to be used for my favourite Christmas cake, ‘cozonac’. I have kept these images hidden for one year, and I always go back to them as a memory of her, but today I have decided to share her last moments of living with you. I say moments of living, because the objects can guide us to her story, even her presence is absent from my images. It can be...

The Carnival of Venice Traditions and history are the main characteristics of Venice. One of the most famous and special traditions is the carnival, moment when the city wakes up from the winter’s torpor and announces the springtime. The myth comes down to earth and mingles with the simple ‘gioia di vivere’ of the local inhabitants, and it is this which attracts crowds who are not always conscious of walking on history or of its fragile nature. Even the most casual observer will notice the unique rhythms of Venice. Behind the mask, which generally replaces rather than disguises the wearer’s face, there is nothing but the mask itself for as long as the game goes on.

W hile during the daytime thousands of masquerades enjoy attention of the viewers and photographers at St Mark’s Square, others dressed as in Victorian times enjoy the nightfall bliss and a cup of tea or wine in a fabulous place situated in St. Mark’s Square. Rub shoulders with folks wearing super- elegant masks as they rest their fur after miles of walking the city and enjoy a sinful chocolate cake while they watch the world go by. Seated comfortably in what is one of the most charming drawing-rooms in the world, one gets here a vivid sense of Venetian life, history and culture. Then, glancing out beyond the marble columns of the colonnade that runs under the Procuratie Nuove, one can enjoy the play of light and shade that Venice witnesses every day. As soon as you get seated down, you feel the vibration of the past time, wandering with whom you will be having a cup of coffee with. To be Carlo Goldi, Goethe or Casanova or having the opportunity to talk with Marchel Proust about À la recherche du temps perdu or Charles Dickens David Copperfield? This place surrounded by history was inaugurated in the 29th December...

Series of my best portraits.