Walking to work, Western Romania. October 2004.

This was taken at dawn from a moving train travelling across southern Romania. I love train travel, and the slower the trains the better. Sadly many countries are now replacing their old carriages, in which you could open the windows and take pictures, with the modern, air-conditioned, quiet, high-speed variety. In Romania they don’t even bother to close the doors on the carriages, so you can hang right out with your camera and the whole landscape is your subject.

Vlădila, Romania. February 2005.

The people who live in rural Romania are almost universally poor by western European standards. Cars are rare and the horse and cart is a common sight. Yet, typically in such places, the people are among the most charming and good humoured I’ve ever met. In February there isn’t too much for the people to do apart from gather fuel, so they were very happy to hang around and chat with a curious foreign photographer.

Petroşani, Romania. February 2005.

The great thing about dogs as subjects is that, while they might think the guy pointing a camera at them is interesting for a few seconds, they soon realise it’s pretty boring from a canine point of view and get back to their doggy preoccupations. This one had found a fascinating bin and could only spare the time to give me a quick stare before getting back to work.