When a man reaches a certain age, and perhaps has become a bit of a family patriarch, he should be allowed to let his hair grow any way he wants. At least, that’s how the Roma feel about male facial hair. Hence you see long gray beards, massive mutton chops, and mustaches like the one sported by this cheerful fellow in the red shirt, all under the black felt hats of the Roma.
Roma Man in a Red Shirt © Harold Davis
This Roma girl is posing with her big sister’s wedding skirt, as if trying it on for size. Soon the younger sister will leave school. She will have had a year or two of schooling in total. Her family does not see the benefits of education, and they are fearful that she will get abducted and raped into a forced marriage if they don’t keep her close to home. Pretty soon it will be her turn to wear the white skirt in a marriage arranged by her family the traditional way.
Modeling a Wedding Skirt © Harold Davis
Above a bar in the Citadel of Sighisoara in remote Transylvania is a room where Count Dracula was born. Or, so it is claimed. For five Romanian lei (a little more than a dollar at current exchange rates) you can enter said chamber and inspect the dimly lit paintings that appear on red velvet walls surrounding an ersatz coffin. Not a mirror is in sight.
Did I hear you ask, “You mean he lived and died in the same room?” Yes, this thought flitted through my mind as well.
The image shown below is an iPhone composite of a ghoulish painting showing Vlad Dracula having dinner while doing his impalement thing, and a portrait of Dracula.
By the way, Vlad is a very common Romanian first name, and Dracula himself seems to be generally fairly well regarded around here: he fought for his country, and was no more brutal than his times. And where did Bram Stoker get off on writing about a country he had never even visited?
Dracul’s Birthplace © Harold Davis
This gypsy family has four kids, just as mine does (I showed them photos of my kids). The three sisters are shown in the rear, with their brother (the youngest) and the mother seated in the front row. The ages are roughly comparable to the ages in my family as well, but there is a world of cultural, historic, and educational differences that separate us (alas) from our common humanity.
Gypsy Family © Harold Davis
As I watched, this village blacksmith made me a nail the old-fashioned way—by hand—to take back as a souvenir to America.
Home-Made Nail © Harold Davis
There are about 500,000 Roma—“gypsies”—living in Romania. This is about 4.5% of the population. These are a proud people with a very distinctive and colorful culture, many with very limited opportunities in this modern world. If the Roma people should be brought into the 21st century, and it is not clear that this is the right thing to do, it is possible to do this while retaining their unique traditions and way of life?
Portrait of a Gypsy © Harold Davis
Alec is a charcoal maker. He spends about eight months a year living in a camp in rural Romania that is off a dirt road off a dirt road. No town wants the charcoal making camp nearby because of the pollution.
The Charcoal Maker © Harold Davis
The process of making charcoal in the camp involves burning a huge structure, almost like a pyramid, of wood. There’s a core that has been impregnated so it is flammable. The wood structure is covered in ashes and hay, then fired. It sits for a couple of weeks, tended so that the wood within carbonizes, but does not burn.
Here in Sibiu, Transylvania they build the roofs high and steeply pitched. To let ventilation and light into the attic spaces these stylized “eyes” have traditionally been added to the roof.
The Eyes Have It © Harold Davis
In this photo, the village blacksmith is showing the superiority of his handmade bespoke horseshoe (the one on his left) compared to a store-bought horseshoe (shown on his right). I was privileged to follow him into the courtyard, where he used the new horseshoes he’d made to shod a horse. The subsequent photos in my sequence document how he does it.
Village Blacksmith © Harold Davis
Corvin Castle, in the city of Hunedoara in Romania, is one of Europe’s largest castles. Originally from the 1400s, it has been partially destroyed and rebuilt a number of times, most recently in the 1800s. The first view is a multi-exposure composite with my Nikon D810, and the view at the bottom is captured and processed using my iPhone.
Corvin Castle © Harold Davis
Corvin Castle (iPhone) © Harold Davis
The ruined castle is Cetatea Trascaului, near Coltesti in Hungarian-speaking Transylvania (Romania).
Ruined Castle, Transylvania © Harold Davis
The image that looks like something out of science fiction (below) was captured at the bottom of a deep salt mine near Turda, Romania. The theory is that salt impregnated air is good for respiratory illnesses. First excavated hundreds of year ago, a tourist complex complete with a ferris wheel, ping pong tables, and a lake one can row around has been built within the deep reaches of the mine to take advantage of the health effects—and to provide respite on a hot summer’s day.
Turda Salt Mine © Harold Davis
This is Daniel, my guide to all things Romanian. He is mugging it up at the Hotel Castel Dracula. Even though he hates the whole Dracula schtick as phony and not really anything to do with Romania. Should I be worried?
Daniel the Guide © Harold Davis
Got up early this morning. Actually, got up and out before it was morning and things were still inky black with darkness. The point was to photograph sunrise in rural Romania. So here’s a photo of sunrise in rural Romania. In case you are wondering, the fence in the image is used to dry hay that is piled against it.
Sunrise in Rural Romania © Harold Davis
This is Daniel Les, a well-known Romanian potter whose studio we visited in Baia Sprie, Maramures, Romania. You can see the hands of the potter at his craft by clicking here.
Daniel Les © Harold Davis
This woman runs a watermill that uses water power and wood-fired steam to power grinding flour, carding wool, and more. Her husband has an adjacent cherry brandy still.
Woman with Bucket © Harold Davis
