From many points of view Romania and its citizens are considered a big patch for the European Union, Britain in particular, but this problem has been raised only because of media and press. Unfortunately, because of this stereotype, many people, including students and exceptional people, suffer and are considered a big enemy for the hosting country.

My main focus for this project is to find successful Romanians who are currently living in the United Kingdom and to change the created stereotype by using photography as a main tool. For me, the success can be defined from just leaving Romania and representing the country abroad to the success of winning an award or running a business. I do not want to judge people from their achievements, I want a balance and find all levels of success. I want to find interesting people and stories, I want to show to the world that there are people out there who have a purpose in life, and I want to make the viewer learn from those people’s stories. I have chosen Romanians, because I can easily contact those people and especially I want to focus on a specific community and get to understand the phenomenon of migration.

Moreover, this project can be also considered an autobiographical one, because it is also about me, a Romanian immigrant in the UK who is dreaming to make her country being proud and to erase the stain.

I consider the fact the images show simple and clear portraits, but behind those people there are wonderful stories that deserve to be shared. The locations for each person are carefully chosen, thus to have a connection to their stories. The portraits are natural and not staged; I look for the right moment to capture the essence of their characters and to describe them as they are. I want to ‘paint’ their soul with the light and to have more than a portrait; I want to capture the essence of their characters. Besides photography, it was also about interaction, contacting, writing, meeting and get into their intimate life. It is more than an act of shooting, is about making friendships.

To sum up, I am somehow looking for changing this mentality that have been created, I know for sure is going to be hard, because the damages are hard to be repaired, but I am confident that my images and its stories will have an important impact to the viewer. In the end, my purpose in photography is to make my voice being heard and to change the world in a better way.