Photo: Roaming the mountain pastures. Brasov, 2023

Romanian photographer Vlad Dumitrescu is not interested in selling holidays. Instead, he uses his lens to channel his love for his home country into intimate photographs of life in the countryside. His portraits turn away from the urban bustle of Bucharest and the castles of his native, much mythologized Transylvania to forefront the people of Romania in their villages, homes, and everyday lives. “My photography consists of rural moments that I consider magic,” Dumitrescu says. “Romania, like the whole world, has changed a lot, and these moments are now hard to find. I am on a constant search for them. For something that is still pure Romanian.”

Photo: “No. I will not slaughter any lambs. I want to have them here with me, to keep me company while the sheep are up in the mountains.” —Andrei, Brasov, 2023

Photo: Timeless beauty of old age. —Maria, Maramures, 2023

Photo: “I remember my grandmother’s hands. They never had a break except on Sundays, at church, when they would rest in her lap, on her apron with a flower pattern.” —Sona, in her grandmother’s traditional dress, Brasov, 2023

Photo: “Once upon a time, there were 250 oxen in the village, and now there are only two. There used to be many young people, but most of them have left, and gone too are the oxen.” —Vasile and his wife Maria and their two oxen, Maramures, 2023

For more of Vlad Dumitrescu’s work, visit @vladdumitrescu.ro.