KATHLEEN LARAIA MCLAUGHLIN
http://www.klmphoto.com/Vita.htm
In my work I photograph people who have a deep felt sense of
tradition. For a year of days beginning in the Autumn of 1999, I lived in
a remote village in the Maramuresh region of northern Transylvania,
Romania. This area came to my attention through my love of Balkan Folk
Dancing. My research revealed the Maramuresh region to be unique amongst
the former Soviet Bloc for the way it had preserved its way of life. After
World War II, for forty years of communist rule, a few valleys in
Maramuresh escaped collectivized farming because of poor soil and hilly
landscape. In the post cold-war period, preservation continues because of
pervasive impoverishment which slows the advancement of modernity into the
reaches of northern Transylvania. But nothing will stand still forever.
While the older generation still don winter footwear that pre-date the
Romans, the younger generation flock to market to buy shoes bearing that
ubiquitous swoosh of western manufacture. |