Last year, Slovakian photographer Lucia Sekerková travelled to Romania to meet Maria Câmpina, the self-proclaimed queen of the fortune tellers. Locally, fortune tellers are referred to as "witches". Usually of Roma origin, these witches are said to be able to read a person's future in their palm, in grains of wheat or in the stars.
Lucia made friends with Maria and spent time documenting the witches, their houses and their trade – a trade that has been passed down from generation to generation since ancient times. I got in touch with her to find out a bit more about her project.
(...)
I just looked up their addresses and telephone numbers on the internet and in the papers, but it was pretty hard to convince them to let me take their picture. Some of them asked for money, others didn't. Anyway, most of them were willing to bargain. The prices ranged somewhere between 20 (£14) and 50 euros (£36) per session.
I told them I was taking their pictures for a newspaper in Slovakia. They probably wouldn't have let me do it if I told them the truth: that I was working on my final project. Moreover, telling them I work for a newspaper assured them that I could pay the price they asked.
After days of searching and bargaining, I finally met Maria Campina – the self-proclaimed queen of the witches – and struck a deal with her. In order to take her and her acquaintances' pictures, I had to promise her the newspaper that I was working for would publish a full story about her, as well as give her the front page. This way, I didn't have to pay any money for the photo session. Maria's photo did end up on the front page of SME, a weekly Slovakian newspaper. More + photos...
Related posts:
Lucia made friends with Maria and spent time documenting the witches, their houses and their trade – a trade that has been passed down from generation to generation since ancient times. I got in touch with her to find out a bit more about her project.
(...)
I just looked up their addresses and telephone numbers on the internet and in the papers, but it was pretty hard to convince them to let me take their picture. Some of them asked for money, others didn't. Anyway, most of them were willing to bargain. The prices ranged somewhere between 20 (£14) and 50 euros (£36) per session.
I told them I was taking their pictures for a newspaper in Slovakia. They probably wouldn't have let me do it if I told them the truth: that I was working on my final project. Moreover, telling them I work for a newspaper assured them that I could pay the price they asked.
After days of searching and bargaining, I finally met Maria Campina – the self-proclaimed queen of the witches – and struck a deal with her. In order to take her and her acquaintances' pictures, I had to promise her the newspaper that I was working for would publish a full story about her, as well as give her the front page. This way, I didn't have to pay any money for the photo session. Maria's photo did end up on the front page of SME, a weekly Slovakian newspaper. More + photos...
Related posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment