Bumbata

Cosmin Bumbuţ

In 2005, Cosmin Bumbuţ started photographing in Aiud Penitentiary in Romania. He spent four years taking pictures there and during this time witnessed all sorts of happy, sad and absurd events. He tried to get close to the inmates and photograph them without exaggeration, without making them look like monsters or victims, but exactly the way they were – mocking, ostentatious, nostalgic or God-fearing. Some of these pictures portray Pricu, a mobster arrested for human trafficking. In 2008, when Cosmin heard Pricu had a real chance of being released on parole, he went to Aiud more often to take pictures of Pricu’s last days there.
During his final visit to Aiud, in the staff office for Social Reintegration, he found a file labelled Prisoners’ literary works and took pictures of them. He also photographed the prison magazine, titled Light from the Dark, which was handwritten and stapled together. He then decided that mixing their texts with his photos was just the right kind of narrative he needed for this project.