Romania’s Oscar entry: Photos taken by Cristian Mungiu in lead-up to Fjord go on display in New York

A series of photographs taken by director Cristian Mungiu while preparing his Palme d’Or winner Fjord, also Romania’s Oscar contender, will be on display at the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) in New York.

Taken exclusively with a phone, the photographs in the exhibition are neither set photographs nor a direct record of the making of the film, the organizers of the exhibition explain. They emerged during the director’s travels and the production’s preparation period, as Cristian Mungiu explored the locations where he would eventually shoot.

“Some of the places and images captured during that period would later find their way into the world of Fjord, while others remained outside it. Seen together, however, the photographs form a story in their own right about the months preceding the shoot and the experiences that accompanied the process. The exhibition thus offers access not so much to the behind-the-scenes story of the film’s production as to the way Cristian Mungiu observes the world before it becomes cinema.”

Photography has long been an interest of the director. Mungiu began taking photographs at the age of 16 and has continued throughout the years, particularly during his travels and while researching and preparing his films.

I photograph things I would have liked to paint, had I ever learned how to paint properly

“I photograph things that speak to me: through their visual form, their composition, their combination of colors, their atmosphere, their light. I photograph things I would have liked to paint, had I ever learned how to paint properly,” Mungiu explains.

The official opening of the exhibition takes place on Friday, October 2, with Cristian Mungiu attending. The event will feature a conversation between the director and Roxana Marcoci, the David Dechman Senior Curator in the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

The exhibition is on view until November 30.