Monday, November 17, 2008

Tichilesti Revisited

Last week I went back to Tichilesti, the leper hospital, and spent some time with the patients there. I will try to keep doing that every seven or eight weeks, for about a year or so. I am mostly concentrating on Ioana Miscov, a nice old lady, and her daughter Domnica (child of two lepers who grew up healthy), as main characters of the community. Here's a few shots from this round.

14 comments:

Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek said...

wow! these are amazing! i love their bokeh. which camera / lens / film did you use for this project?

kind regards, daniel

Stogie Smoker said...
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andrei said...
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andrei said...

Stefan, I have no idea why you would care about a story like this, since I could never speak for someone else. I can only tell you why I was interested in it.

I have first heard about this community from my editor, Mihai Vasile. The way he talked about it was a community about to dissapear. Which was exactly what I had found when I got there. Twenty-one lepers left in Romania, most of which very old.
First of all, I think it is important to document places that will no longer be here ten years from now.

Secondly, it is my hope that this story, focused on Ioana Miscov, will show a different perspective on the people suffering from this disease. Luckily, it will make people aware that lepers are people just like the rest of us, perhaps much better in many respects.

Ioana Miscov and her daughter Domnica are relvant to this story because they represent a particularly good example of how harmless this community is and how little danger leprosy presents nowadays. A daughter of two lepers, Domnica was born in the community, has grown there in perfect health and now is a mother herself. Ioana has gone through quite a bit of suffering in her life at Tichilesti, which, to my surprise, has not taken its toll. She is one of the most optimistic persons I have ever met. Deep down, I guess I keep going back hoping her optimism is a lot more contagious than the disease that has brought her there.

andrei said...

Daniel,

I have to admit that the bokeh is a new word for me. That probably tells a lot about my technical skills. However, for your information, I use a Canon 5D, with two lenses (28mm/f1.8 and 50mm/1.4).

Lucian Stănescu said...

i think it's well done, congrats!

Tully said...

Andrei,

Well said. I like this set of images. Very nice seeing.

Stogie Smoker said...
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Stogie Smoker said...
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andrei said...

No worries! Comments and questions are always welcome here.

Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek said...

amazing! i bet they had made with film. love em!

Jeronimo Nisa said...

Andrei,

Great work and great reasoning behind it.

Anonymous said...

Cu ce program e realizat slideshow-ul?

andrei said...

Gasiti programul la www.soundslides.com