Framing A Romanian Landscape by Mircea Sorin Albutiu

Imagine a train transformed into a camera, its window a single, ever-present lens framing a continuous flow of life. The photo book is a document of a nation, and an exploration of a country seen anew.

In 2021, Albutiu, known for capturing the unseen in life's backstages, embarked on 8-month journey, traveling 11,000 kilometers across Romania while riding 62 trains, to document the hidden stories unfolding behind the scenes of the country. Armed with just one camera and lens, and a preference for the tones of the Kodak Ektar film, he sought to capture the interplay of light, people, communities, architecture, landscape, territories and environments and the ever-changing landscape framed by the train window. Albuțiu was particularly drawn to the perspective offered by the train's path, which often passed behind buildings, revealing glimpses of hidden courtyards and gardens, like a continuously moving backstage to the public performance of life.

As Bogdan Ghiu ponders in the book's foreword essay, "[...] what do we see and, perhaps above all, what is visible? What does the photographer, “the man with the camera” see – and, now, the man with the train: the camera-train -, and what else is visible and maybe even in spite of it?" This unique vantage point shapes a fresh perspective on Romania. The resulting collection, a beautiful object in itself with a limited print run designed by Andrei Becheru and printed at Atelier Fabrik, feels like a glimpse on the move into the dreams and aspirations of a people.