It was awesome! I must admit that I got a bit afraid. We found out with the organizers from the French Institute (Institut Français) from Cluj-Napoca that on June 28th, the very same day of the opening of my Histoire Urbaines exhibition, at the same time, was happening the opening of the World Press Photo 2018 exhibition, a few under meters down the road! Talk about  competition… It was anyhow too late to change the date of the opening, therefore we went for it hoping that not only my friends will show up 🙂

And far from that, about 150 persons came the first evening. For a small scale exhibition on a niche genre with such a competition, it really was an accomplishment!

The place in itself, a cave with visible stones and bricks of the walls, the tubes, gave a great urban feeling, that went very well with my photos. I couldn’t have wished for a better place. The mood was set, all these people came and, I hope, had a good time.

It was a very interesting social experiment for me, to have my own exhibition: meeting all these people interested in my work just never happened before. And I had so much fun talking with them about my photography, how I see things, how I interpret my photos and how it compares to their interpretation.

I also had quite a revelation the day before while setting up everything. While I document what’s happening around me in the city, in a way I document myself too. For each and everyone of the 31 photos that were showcased I could tell when it was taken, what was the challenge, how I found the spot, and even more importantly, what was happening with myself, my mood, my life, at this very moment. Even for shots taken years ago. It is something I’ve never thought about before, but for sure it just really motivates me to continue photographing the life around me further more!

I’d like to thank Xavier Leroux, director of the French Institute of Cluj-Napoca for his warm welcome and for hosting the exhibition, Raluca Mateiu and her team for the great organization, and Robert Fejer for the photos of the evening. And, of course, all the people that came and made this opening the greatest one I could have hoped for!

Did you go to the exhibition? Did you like it? Tell me more in the comments below!