Chronicling an Endangered Way of Life: A Comparative Photographic Study of Peasant Folk Traditions in Romania (Research Brief)

One of the challenges of a documentary photographer is to capture disappearing lifestyles before globalization further homogenizes distinctive cultures. I lived a year in northern Romania in 1999/2000 and began my documentation of exciting and vivid living traditions in the Maramureş region. Upon my return to Romania in 2002, I was overwhelmed and awed by the rapid change that had already taken place, generally the increase in number of cars, restaurants, and economic development. In Romania, the traditional lifestyle of peasants is being lost due to de-emphasis by their modernizing culture.

Download the pdf at the top of this page for the full brief.

Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin, of Virginia Commonwealth University, was a 2002-03 Individual Advanced Research Opportunities (IARO) fellow.