Photographing the Children of Romania's Communist Estates

During the communist period, housing estates were built all over Romania in an attempt to provide homes for mining, industrial, and agricultural workers. However, once the revolution came and capitalism swept in with its promise of a better world, the buildings were forgotten about and fell into disrepair. Though no one was taking care of the buildings anymore, a large amount of the people either convinced or forced to work in the area had no other choice but to stay put, despite the harsh conditions.

It was when I visited the Mija neighborhood near the city of Ploiești that I had the idea for this series of photographs, so I did some research and found out that places like this still existed across the country. I haven’t been able to cover them all, but the ones I did manage to get to include those in Aninoasa (two blocks called "the Barracks" and "Cardboard City"), Lonea, Petrila, Găești, Anina (the block is called "New City"), Horea in the Baia Mare county, and Altân Tepe. I ended up focusing my attention on the children who lived in these blocks. I was not a massive fan of children before this project, but I was so impressed by the spirit, generosity, and closeness of the kids living in the buildings. Let's face it, there are probably few less depressing places to live than on a crumbling, Soviet-era Romanian council block, but they offered me what little candy they had, we hugged, held hands, and picked field flowers together. They were cheerful despite the difficulties they have to go through every day: the lack of drinking water, heating, and the fact that they have to walk great distances to be able to attend school.

Most of the adults in the estates are unemployed, since the jobs they moved there for no longer exist, new ones were never created, and learning a new trade isn't the easiest thing to do when you've devoted your entire professional career to one thing. Saying goodbye was pretty hard, so I figure the least I can do is show the reality of their everyday lives.

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