Immediate Landscape visually surveys the Romanian urban landscape through an image archive that describes a personally defined territory – one unbound by borders or distance.

The photographs are geographically situated in the Republic of Moldova and Romania. The two countries share the same culture, language, and history. After WWII, they ended up as two separate states: Basarabia (now Moldova) was occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania went through its own communist regime from 1947 to 1989. The Republic of Moldova declared its independence in 1991.

As a consequence, today, they share similarities in their landscapes, often featuring improvised structures and lackluster infrastructure characteristic of post-communist states. The project aims to critically examine these particularities and create images that reflect the identity of the territory it represents through my own subjective vision. The social and political issues of interest to the project include economic inequality, lack of infrastructural development, and environmental negligence.

I am one of many people from the Republic of Moldova who emigrated to Romania. My reason was to study photography at university, as there isn’t a program for it in Moldova. Since coming here, I have developed a fascination with finding visual similarities between the two countries, reflecting a bigger picture of their shared yet divided history. In both countries, we speak Romanian, listen to the same music, enjoy similar food, and live in communist-era apartment blocks. Yet, a border remains between them – a border that, for me, has slowly dissolved over the years. Through my project, I am drawing a personally defined territory, reimagining a reunited, though still historically-wounded, Romania.

Ongoing project.