my home by mugur varzariu

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In the media, we are all for human rights and integration. In real life, however, France for instance, only appreciates Romas in movies at Cannes film festival.

Inspired by the French authorities' solution to move Romas from point A to point B, Romanian authorities planned and started forced evictions of Roma informal settlements in cities like Cluj-Napoca, Baia Mare, etc...

Some of these settlements date back to early 90’s. They were always tolerated by the authorities who verbally encouraged Romas to build in the area while giving reassurances that nothing bad would ever happen to them. Yet, today, while campaigning on a hate ticket, the same authorities are planning forced evictions without reasons other than ethnic cleansing of the cities.

Our humanity is as big as the distance between us and the real problems of the world...This is why we can shed a tear for the starving kids of Africa and not give a damn about the desperate Roma kids living next door.

We ask of the Romas to send their kids to school, but we never ask if those kids can bathe or have a decent breakfast before attending classes. As they live in ramshackle dwellings, ‘bathing’ itself is an improper word to describe how these kids manage to wash themselves. Without direct access to running water, each child or woman goes 5-6 times each day to collect water from a nearby water pump. A task like that would make even Sisyphus go crazy.

Without heating or electricity the Romas lead a harder life today than in the Middle Age -- harder as the discrepancies then were less visible than those today...The most fortunate of them get an improvised electricity line from the near by apartment blocks. When you discover how much they pay for this bootlegged current that fuels maybe one lightbulb (20 Euro a month), you realize being poor doesn't come cheap.

They do all the dirty work for us by working for companies collecting the garbage or cleaning the cities. They can never make ends meet so they are always indebted to loan sharks. With less than 100 euros a month the public garbage dump is their supermarket.

Because we deem unimportant their traditions, pottery or other ancient roma crafts struggle for survival. Because of their lack of education and our own discrimination we only hire them on a daily basis and than spend all day in fear they might steal some fruits from us. Almost all the grapes are collected with the help of Roma people.

I live in a country where people look at poor Roma people living in inhumane conditions and ask me if they are thieves. I always reply with a question which renders them speechless. I ask, ‘how many thieves eating out of garbage do you know?’

Yet they live their life without asking too much. They only ask not to be evicted and thrown out on the streets. They ask to be consulted and presented with alternatives for relocation. If segregation is all that comes out of these relocations, they ask to be left where they are today. They realize life is hard for those without education, but regardless of how poor they are, they shouldn’t be denied the right to non-segregated social housing programs.

We deem them irresponsible for having so many children, but we seem to forget how many children our grandmothers used to have. If it wasn’t for our grandmothers we wouldn’t be here today...

Protected by current legislation, or the lack of it to be more precise, the racists of this country fail to understand the real power of Roma people. In less than a hundred years they will be the majority population of Romania.

How ironic is the fact that we want to get rid of them while our survival as a nation depends on them?

This is Europe at it’s worst...It doesn’t need to be that way...If South Africa were to forcibly send other African citizens back to their countries of origin, Europeans would find that unacceptable and human right activists would ask for all kinds of measures to put a stop to it...

When France does it, everybody turns a blind eye...

Where is the democracy in that?

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With a very successful career in strategic marketing and brand management, working for some of the most important companies in Romania, in 2010 Mugur decided it was time for a change in order to find more than just professional accomplishments. He chose photography and due to his ambition and dedication in less than a year his work has been internationally recognized and he became a stringer for some of the most important press agencies (Associated Press, Mediafax, IntactImages and recently invited as a contributor on Getty).

Photography became a new means of expressing his social artistry. Therefore in his projects he approached some of the intriguing aspects of living in today’s Romania, in an attempt to raise awareness and increase social responsibility among institutions and individuals.

He believes that we are way beyond the point where a true documentary photographer simply just shows us the reality as they see it. While being objective, he believes that photographers should continue their work and attempt to help way pass their assignments. And that is because they have or should have a better understanding of the situation than anybody else.

He is especially attached to the roma people’s cause and he hopes that one day, his work, from images to public speeches and presentations will help end the plight of the roma people. UNHCR, UNICEF (Romania and Switzerland), Open Society and Amnesty International already used and commissioned his work on roma people. He did two stories for Le Monde des Religions (part of Le Monde Group) - 2010 (pogrom survivors in Romania) and 2011 (hindu-muslim reconciliation).

In april 2012 he had an assignment for WIRED Magazine in Glasgow, Scotland. Mugur’s images have been published by Le Monde des Religions, The Economist, The new York times, Welt, Los Angeles Times, etc. He exhibited for UNHCR, marking the WRD and the 60th Anniversary of UNHCR and his work on recent uprising events in Syria was screened at Visa Pour l’Image 2011. In september 2012, his work ‘Romania’ was screened during the 24th edition of the same Festival, Visa Pour l’Image.

Even though he only started as a photographer in 2010, he won the iReport CNN award 2010, he had his images selected among the favorites of Daphne Angles in 2010, Alexia Singh (7 images), Renata Ferri (winner), Paul Romer (6 images), Rebecca McClelland, and an awarded image in the “Editor’s Choice 3 Favorite Overall Image” competition at CPN (Canon Professional Network), 2011.

On December 20, 2011, he received a 'Honorable Mentions' distinction - UNICEF 'Photo of the Year' 2011.

Since november 2012 he is part of the Canon Ambassadors Program as an Explorer.

“A newcomer to the ever growing numbers of photojournalists, Mugur has made himself known very rapidly, covering a variety of subjects in different countries for extended periods of time. He produced a large body of work over a very short time span. He has all the resources required to be a recognized member of the present time photojournalism community, as well as the drive to invest every effort in this endeavor. I wish him good light inside the soul and outside in his photographs and hope that his images will highlight important human issues and persuade the viewers to step in and offer practical help to those in need.

To Mugur, and hopefully for all photographers, making a practical difference for the better for those in need through his pictures is the main target, the highest and only truly meaningful reward for his work” - Vadim Ghirda, AP staff photographer.