The tragedy of the humble hope

The tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self denial”, the Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde once said. I wonder if this is true, for I know that every life deserves a certain amount of dignity, no matter how poor or damaged the shell that carries it… I love photography mainly because I like to observe every aspect of the existence and to memorize it by taking pictures. I know that “a great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed” (Ansel Adams) and I think we all agree with this affirmation. I’ve been given the chance of being a part in a very special project for PACT Foundation, documenting the life of some of the people living across our country, they are poor, uneducated people, living a very simple life. In many villages across Romania, especially in its rural areas and in the mixed communities constituted there people live a life of poverty: in fact, many rural families are affected by a poor and confined existence. Families with many children and no jobs for the adult members survive in very difficult conditions, because the financial aids received by them as a result of the government policy are very small. Many of these people spend their days working in different places, for little money. Some of them usually go and gather scraps from abandoned buildings or go through some villages or other places to collect objects made of iron or other metals, which are later being sold in the collection centers, for only a few money. This way of living is a very big problem for these people, but also for the authorities here in Romania, that are often powerless facing all these issues about the living conditions of these people and their lack of education also. Many people live in houses with only one room. In rare cases, the houses where these people live have two living rooms, for all the family members to live in – sometimes, the number of the family members exceeds 7 people. Many children want to go to school, but many of their parents can not afford this. Education is too expensive for the people who are living their lives from one day to another. This is why children can't go to school and can not have a good education. As a volunteer photographer in this project, I support with all my strength the possibility of giving all these people a chance to a better existence, from every point of view speaking, and I accepted this approach I’ve been given in doing my job by going to these places and documenting varied aspects of the lives of all these people. This project was a challenge for me and through my images I wish I could find a way to increase the chances for these people to have a better life in the future, instead of this, sometimes cruel reality from these people’s houses those places where life continues, despite of the difficulties they encounter every day, and where laughing and joking coexist together in all circumstances.