DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY – THE CURRENT TRENDS AND HIGHLIGHT
Tuesday 16th of OCTOBER 2012
DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY – THE CURRENT TRENDS AND HIGHLIGHT - in english
Free access
Programme: 18.00 - 19.00
Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin, will keep a lecture about Documentary Photography – the current trends and highlight, illustrated by 3-4 dynamic projects.
Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin, Photography Professor and Fulbright Senior Scholar, will talk about her long-term project documenting the traditions of Maramures, Romania, since 1999. She will discuss current trends in documentary photography, offer advice to improve your image making, and how to get your work seen by a wider audience. She has her first photography book published called The Color of Hay: The Peasants of Maramures. More details – http://www.romanialibera.ro/opinii/interviuri/foto-doi-americani-in-maramuresul-binecuvantat-221772.html , Interview on Radio Romania International: http://www.colorofhay.com/home/2011/2/19/radio-romania-international.html , Color of Hay on Romanian photo blog Oitzarisme.
The story of Kathleen’s relationship with the Romanian peasant life begins in 1995, when she was introduced to Romanian and Balkan folk dancing. The beauty of the rhythm and context of the dance must have made a deep impression on her, since she decided to dedicate many years of her (and her family’s) life to the research of the traditional life of the Maramures region in northern Romania. In her MFA in Photography thesis entitled A Contactf ul Life: Peasants of Maramures, Romania, Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin portrays the rural peasant life in Maramures. Her thesis seeks to capture the Old European peasant traditions before they become further compromised by contact with the West. Using an approach similar to visual anthropology, the photographs explore many facets of the lives of these Eastern European peasants including folk costumes, customs, religious ceremonies, crafts, funeral practices, wedding practices and subsistence farming techniques. Individuals’ portraits add a personal dimension. A narrative of the artist’s experience is included to deepen appreciation of how the four seasons affect life in the Cosău valley where the town of Sighetu Marmaţiei rests in the shadow of the Carpathian mountains. In an interview, Kathleen declared that she fell in love with Romania. Even if she had not made this statement, her love is obvious to anyone who sees her photographic work.
Astra Film is pleased to present her photographs for the whole period of the festival, and to invite you to Kathleen Laraia McLauglin’s open lecture on Documentary Photography on Tuesday, October 16th.
ENG Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin is a photographer and educator with an appetite for exploring the world.
Wherever she goes, she brings a compassionate and curious lens backed by traditional film. For her efforts at capturing a disappearing world, she has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar award, an IREXIARO Grant (National Endowment for the Humanities), and a Houston Center for Photography Fellowship for her work in Romania. Her images have appeared in PDN, Gastronomica, LensWork, Rangefinder, B&W Magazine, Black + WhitePhotography, and The Times Saturday Magazine. Her photographs have been exhibited both nationally in the United States and internationally and are in the permanent collections at the Museum of Photographic Art in San Diego, Western Virginia Museum of Art, Judah Magnes Museum, and the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest.