It is October, and as you probably already know, it is the month I usually meet Anastasia Olaru for our annual portrait, so here it is.
It all started in October 2003, 18 years ago, when Anastasia entered my studio for the first time. With that occasion, totally unscheduled, I’ve made her a portrait. Luckily, as a coincidence, Anastasia came again to my studio the following year, in October, and I’ve taken her a second portrait, similar to the first one. From that moment, it was clear to me that this could be an exciting project, so we decided to meet each other again every October, for as long as possible, annually repeating this portrait.
The most challenging picture we did last year, in October 2020. As you probably remember, our meeting then was “special” due to the travel restrictions related to the pandemic of Covid 19. The pandemic forced us to adopt a different strategy, a “remote” photo session (me in Bucharest and Anastasia in London, where she lives), as it was impossible to meet her in person with so many restrictions and quarantines. This year, I’ve met Anastasia in my studio, so the project is again on its natural course, face to face, as it is supposed to be.
Even it started as a portrait photography experiment, this project became an allocution about the passing of time and especially about emotional aspects of it. With the help of Anastasia, we are documenting the effects of time in a very subtle way. Anastasia decides how she looks in the images; she uses her styling and makeup and chooses the final image from the set of pictures I shoot. Of course, I’m deciding the light and frame, the overall composition, but the photo portrays Anastasia as she wants, on her terms and values. I believe this approach highlights, even more, the passing of time and Anastasia’s travel from a child to an adult.
