Eastern European photographer Dana Popa's latest project may not be a controversial as her previous documentations, but, Popa insists that it deserves just as much attention. In it she explores her own culture by documenting the stark contrast of the post communist Romania, in particular the lives of the 'new generation' born free from the shackles and difficulties of the communist era and now free to induldge in Western excess.
'Press Release'
"Twenty years on after the Romanian ‘revolution’ in December 1989, the heavy grey blocks of flats - the
painful communist legacy – are the only apparent element to remain unchanged.
I met with Romanian youth to see what their lives are like nowadays.
Connected to the world via internet, with access to the latest news and freedom to travel anywhere in
Europe, with possibilities of driving convertible cars in their 20s and study abroad, they can’t imagine
a reality that was the long cues for milk and a small portion of meat or petrol for hours to an end in
the middle of the night, the small bread ratio one family was entitled to, people disappearing for ever
with no trace, the no right to listen to any foreign radio channel or to travel abroad, the everyday
censorship, etc.
They live in a reality that inevitably carries on much from the communist past, moulds onto the
bittersweet changes that followed, still, is more and more anchored in the imported Western European
culture. Romanian girls would now wear the latest Italian fashion, boys would have the last gadgets
appearing on the western market. They all freely apply to the Western Universities’ courses and often
party in Ibiza."
http://www.danapopa.com/projects.php
