Book of the Month September 2005

Book of the Month

Breathtakingly beautiful and 100 per cent Romanian

by Andrew Begg
September 2005

Live by Petru Bogdan
128 pages, 2005, RON 200 (hardback),
available through Vivid and selected bookstores

Take one of the country’s most talented young photographers, Petru Bogdan. Then link him with four attractive Romanian women. Decorate them in clothes by Romania’s most renowned designer, Doina Levintza. Then take them to some of the most interesting locations in all of Romania to be photographed. The heady result is the most beautiful album of photographs that has been seen in a long time, and the best aspect of all is that its inspiration and production from start to finish is entirely Romanian.

Save for several pages, Live is photographed in sumptuous black and white; its women could be characters out of Alain Resnais’s classic 1962 film Last Year at Marienbad – they are at times moody, self-conscious and introspective, at others wholly natural, bereft of the sheerest veneer of artifice.

There is an interesting variety of outdoor locations; Herastrau Lake is recognisable, as is Peles Castle, as is Mogosoia, as is a rooftop cityscape looking out over stately, historic Bucharest, with its domed rooves and spires; and yet there are many locations that are completely unidentifiable. Whether photographed inside in extreme close-up or on the crumbling steps of wind-battered, centuries-old, barely there ruins, there is a feeling of being provided a glimpse into a Romania rarely seen, rarely understood. It is, in short, Romania looking better than ever. The cover of this month’s Vivid, and the two Portraits within these pages are a small example of what to expect.

At the Live launch at Cotroceni Palace, at which forty books were sold with all moneys going to flood relief programmes, Petru Bogdan explained the inspiration behind the project. The idea of ‘live’, the concept of it, is more commonly identified with live television, as in sports events or news or pop concerts broadcast directly into living rooms. At first, he said, it might be difficult to associate the concept of live with a book, but it’s not what you see, it’s what you feel. ‘It’s important to engage with the essence of an image directly,’ he said.

Petru Bogdan is an artist whose name is beginning to be known in international art circles. His work is well known in Japan after a successful exhibition, and many of Romania’s Who’s Who, including Traian Basescu and Adrian Nastase have his photographs in their homes.

If you don’t already know his work, Live is an excellent place to start.

For More of Petru Bogdan's work see his portraits this issue ...