Mărţişor sales in Moldova not affected by crisis

Construction worker watches the crowd of mărţişor sellers who gathered downtown Chisinau on February 28, 2009. Mărţişor, (read Mertseeshawr), is both the Spring Holiday and a small red-and-white talisman that symbolizes the defeat of winter in Moldova and Romania.

Nina, 62, from Cătranîc village, traveled over 100 km from her home to sell mărţişors. She made them with her daughter during the previous three days. The prices are $0.3, $0.5 and $1 depending on size and complexity of handwork. Despite fierce competition in the first three hours she sold 30 mărţişors.

More mărţişors: in wikipedia, on flickr, a blog, on moldova.org.

 

Snapshots from Robert A. Reeder's presentation at the Arts Academy

Robert A. Reeder is a former Washington Post photojournalist residing now in Moldova. Today he offered a short presentation to students of Arts Academy of Moldova. The following pictures are placed here only to document the event. We had the opportunity to meet a professional photojournalist whose experience includes years and years of front page stories in American home politics.

Robert A. Reeder

I enjoyed the calm discussion in dim light 🙁 and the most memorable quote was:

Remember the picture with the woman having a tear on her cheek at the memorial? I took that picture and then waited till she calmed down and approached her. I presented myself. I said that I saw her moved by what was happening and that I presumed that she is somehow affected by the place. She said that she had her son killed in Afghanistan. Then I told her that in that moment when she was crying I made a picture of her and that I believe that that picture can really explain to our readers what was happening there today and that this may be very important. And I asked her permission to publish the picture. And she agreed.
(I haven’t recorded the discussion so this is not an exact quote, but the idea is there.)

This was his answer to the question: „Don’t you feel yourself a paparazzi sometimes?”

Moldovan photojournalist Nicolae Pojoga

Most of the presentation comprised Reeder’s coverage of US home politics

Moldovan film director Vlad Druc


Since I don’t use flash light, I try to steal it from others 🙂

 

 

Interview with John McConnico, Pulitzer prize winning photographer

Recently I’ve discovered the amazing Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog. After reading this article please visit them — http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/ — you won’t regret. The World Animal Day collection attracted me in the first place since I am a birdwatcher. From the 40 pictures shown there, the one with the zebra attracted me most. I can’t tell exactly why, but I’ve watched it a little bit, then went down to reading the caption and the zebra was from Chişinău, capital of Moldova, where I actually live. First surprise.

And the picture wasn’t taken by a Moldovan, of course, but by a guy called John McConnico. Who’s this guy? Google answered. Pulitzer prize winner, worked mainly for AP in 70+ countries, covered conflicts in Haiti, Afghanistan, Kenia, Balkans… Why would a guy like this take a picture of a Zebra in Chişinău?

His home page — http://johnmcconnico.com/ — answered. Because he stays there right now. There was a Moldovan phone number there, I called, introduced myself and asked for an interview. “Sure“, said John, “I have two free hours tomorrow, write down the address.“ I did. Through the window I could see his house. It was 100 meters from the place I’m staying the last 15 years.

The interview was published this week in Romanian by Punkt magazine. Don’t hurry to click, their website is not often updated. I place here 90% of the original interview in English in PDF format.

John McConnico Interview http://d.scribd.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=12731945&access_key=key-r7038aczr20bitnv182&page=1&version=1&viewMode=list