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| Gentle Violence - Cristina Bobe / Photo Romania Festival 2015 |
Photo Romania Festival brings 10 days of exhibitions, conferences, workshops and photography competitions to Cluj-Napoca – Transylvania’s largest city – between May 15 and 24, announced the organisers during a press conference. The festival is the biggest photography event in Eastern Europe, and this year's edition includes 70 exhibitions by internationally renowned artists, over 20 workshops with various themes held by specialists, conferences, concerts and other special events. The opening Gala of the festival will take place tomorrow night and will be followed by the presentation of a group exhibition created by the members of Photosharp, one of Romania’s biggest photography communities. This year's edition will have an estimated 160 guests from home and abroad, renowned photographers and managers of photography festivals throughout Europe.
The manager of Photo Romania Festival, Cătălin Balog Bellu, included Photo Stories – a TED-like photography conference, Hungarian Photographers @ Photo Romania and Architecture Photography Days among the top events the audience will be able to attend during the fifth edition of the festival. For the first time in Romania, the festival will also include a formal meeting of European photopraphy festivals managers – Industry Days. Also, the festival will contain panels dedicated to professional wedding or dental photography, and special events dedicated to photojournalism or mobile phone photography. The exhibitions bring together various photographic techniques, from analog photography to digital manipulation and photography on wood, and address different genres, ranging from portrait photography to the conceptual one, and from landscape photography to photojournalistic projects focusing on social issues.
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| Waiting Patiently - Sylvia Plachy Photo Romania Festival 2015 |
According to Sebastian Vaida, Photo Romania’s artistic director, some the top exhibitions brought to Cluj by this year’s edition are Waiting patiently by Hungarian-born American photographer Sylvia Plachy, one of the most celebrated photographers in the world, The Atlas of Beauty by Mihaela Noroc, Midnight Milk by Norwegian artist Marie Sjøvold, and Gentle Violence by Cristina Bobe, a unique experiment that combines photographic art with medicine. All of the above will be open to the public between May 15 and 24 and will be hosted by The National Arts Museum in Cluj. Other special exhibitions are Jane Long’s Dancing with Costică, Blanco y Negro by Josep Maria Ribas Prous, or Felix Dobbert’s Reconstructions - Still Life In Progress.
The headquarters of the festival, located in an old and picturesque building in the center of the city, will become, during the 10 days of events, a genuine Museum of Photography, hosting old and contemporary photography exhibitions, dozens of workshops within the the Photo Romania Academy, conferences dedicated to the history of photography or specific photographic techniques and themes, book releases, concerts, debates and informal meetings between the audience and the photographers. Although this is where the heart of the festival will beat, Photo Romania will also include events all across the city, in various galleries, museums, universities, shopping centers, in the city’s Central Park and even outside Cluj, in the astonishing Turda Salt Mine and the small town of Turda.
Photo Romania Day Festival will also host a Nikon day, during which those interested will be able to test the latest equipment from the Japanese manufacturer. In addition to working with Nikon, the festival enjoys a partnership with Nordic Light Festival in Norway, which facilitated Marie Sjøvold’s exhibition in Cluj.
Created in 2010 under the name FIAF, Photo Romania Festival brought photography to the forefront of Romanian cultural life and was able to put Cluj in the global network of high-class photography festivals. Furthermore, the prestigious British publication "The Telegraph" included Photo Romania in a list of most important photography festivals in the world.
Photo Romania Festival 2015 lead partner: Nikon
Photo Romania 2015 Project is funded by EEA Grants 2009-2014, PA17/RO13 program, “Promoting cultural and artistic diversity in the European cultural heritage”.
Photo Romania Festival is organised with the support of the Town Hall and City Council in Cluj-Napoca.
For more information regarding Photo Romania Festival, visit the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/PhotoRomaniaFestival), visit the website (http://www.photoromaniafestival.ro/) of the event and read the official publication of the festival: http://issuu.com/photoromaniafestival/docs/photosinteza.
