Valea Lungă Dâmbovița

Valea Lungă Dâmbovița is a small Romanian village in the Muntenia region. Vegetable gardens and horse carts are the answer to the basic needs of everyone, some houses still have their own water well, others lack a connection to the sewer.

The population here seems to live a quiet life, in silence and in close relationship with nature. The village is only two hours by car from Bucharest but is somewhat protected from all the contrasts typical of the difficult economic development of the country.

Romania, July 2019.

Dense green summer woodland, slim trunks rising from thick leafy undergrowth, a pale broken branch catching the light.Over the shoulder of a red-haired woman in orange, the sunlit ochre facade of an old Romanian house rises behind her.A flock of pigeons wheels across a bright blue sky crossed by many diagonal power and telephone lines.Close-up: a young hand and an elderly wrinkled hand together cradle a tiny grey-and-white kitten on a patterned blue dress.Village yard: cuts of raw meat hang to cure behind gauze netting, a milk churn, plastic basins and a floral-clothed table.Sunlight falls on an open photo wallet on a red checked cloth: two portraits of the same young woman with a short black bob.A woman in a yellow striped shirt stands half-hidden in dense green forest undergrowth, examining a plant in her hands.A ramshackle village house of bare timber and OSB boards behind a rust-red picket fence, with wooded hills rising behind.Through a rust-red picket fence framed by flowering orange trumpet vine, a red-haired woman stands in a lush green garden.