Another October means another meeting with Anastasia in my studio for her annual portrait. It’s been 22 years since we started this project, and after this very long run, we’ve completed the 23rd image.
Everything began in October 2003, when a very young Anastasia entered my studio for the first time. On that occasion, I took her portrait without having a project in mind. Coincidentally, Anastasia returned to my studio the following October, in 2004, and I made a second portrait similar to the first one. From that moment on, it became clear that this could become a long-term project, so we decided to meet every October for as long as possible, each year repeating the portrait and adding new images to the series.
Interestingly, over all these years, I’ve changed my studio three times and my camera and lighting equipment countless times, but I’ve never changed the chair Anastasia sits on. She’s sitting on a traditional Transylvanian chair I bought at random in the 2000s. Amusingly, the chair isn’t visible in the pictures, but we, Anastasia and I, know it’s there.
It is worth noting that Anastasia decides her look in the images. She does her own styling and makeup and also chooses the final image from the pictures I take. Of course, I set up the light, framing, and overall composition, but the photograph portrays Anastasia as she wishes, on her own terms and values. I believe this approach objectively highlights her journey from childhood to adulthood. Although it began as a photographic portrait experiment, this project has become, in my view, a reflection on the passage of time and especially on its emotional dimension. I feel there is context here to document the effects of time in a very subtle way.
As a side story, we took the most challenging picture five years ago, in October 2020. As you probably remember, our meeting then was “special” because of the travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The situation forced us to adopt a different strategy — a remote photo session, with me in Bucharest and Anastasia in London, where she lives — since meeting in person was impossible due to the many restrictions and quarantines. Except for that year, I’ve always met Anastasia in my studio, and the project is now back on its natural course, face to face, as it is meant to be.
Please check all the pictures from the series below.
