EU N-AM TRAIT IN COMUNISM (which would roughly translate into I WAS NOT BROUGHT UP DURING COMMUNISM) is a photography project aiming to explore how communist nostalgia and the traces of the fallen regime are clashing with the lives of today’s Romanian youth.
I was not brought up during communism. Nor was I born early enough to witness its abolition or to experience its hardships first-hand. But I was there right on time to experience its aftermath and subconsciously allow it to shape the individual I have eventually become. Growing up, it came to a point where I was overwhelmed by the myriad of communist remnants still present around me - from fashion and architecture to seemingly odd mannerisms and habits that had developed during communist times and would still be followed religiously to this day.
I was not brought up during communism. But through all the communist stories I was bombarded with from family, friends and the media, it felt like I was, to some extent, reliving a reality and a set of memories that were entirely borrowed from others.
Eu n-am trait in comunism. But by capturing a brief segment of my grandmother’s and my cousin’s lives and then examining how they contrast and, at times, interestingly overlap, I was able to carry out an introspection into my own childhood and teenage perceptions and experiences of communist nostalgia.