Photographer Mihai Barabancea portrays the underworld of post-Soviet Romania
and Moldova: a set of subjects and scenes revealing the crude reality of the
streets, zeroing in on moments of ruthless rawness and keen
poignancy.
To “accidentally fall on a blade thirteen times” is a sardonic—and
rather poetic—way of saying to get stabbed.
“It doesn't always kill you, but it always hurts. And still you've got to
"roll with the punches" and keep going. I find this ability to roll with the
punches, to "take the pain" and adapt to circumstances, in my subjects:
gypsies, beggars, crooks, vagabonds, underdogs, conmen, buskers and various
shady characters in Romania and Moldova. My object is not to exploit
problem-ridden post-communist Romania for voyeuristic purposes. I'm not an
indifferent observer, but one who tries hard to give these people the
freedom they need to portray themselves on camera—and to bring about
necessary changes themselves in the social stereotypes still assigned to
them.” (Mihai Barabancea)
Barabancea uses the camera as a tool to interact with his subjects. But
instead of staging picturesque portraits, he zeroes in on moments of
ruthless rawness and keen poignancy.
Mihai Barabancea (born 1983 in Bucharest, where he lives and works) is a
Bucharest-based photographer. Barabancea made quite a splash in Romania
back in the late 1990s when he appeared on TV as a member of a graffiti
gang. In 2018 he won the Gomma Prix Award for his series Overriding
Sequence.