Behind this image there is an interesting story.

Panning image of a young woman riding her bicycle in a traditional city square.

A long time ago, as a child, when I took over my father’s professional camera, my first photo assignment was to shoot a famous rally taking place in my city, the Chestnuts Rally . Back then, I had no idea what photography was about, but the camera and using is were simply and totally mesmerizing me. Along with the camera, I also received a few books on photography … obviously, I had no time to read them :). So, on the day of the rally I photographed “instinctively”, as it  felt on the spot, totally clueless about theory. The subjects (cars) were quite difficult targets.

A lot of motion and sometimes menacing weather demanded concentration to produce accurate images. Not to mention that my device, although it was very good for those times (a true German photographic Panzer), was no match for today’s tools of trade …. even if you include phones in the mix.. But at that time, I was not interested in the technical part, I just wanted to show the story of the Rally through images.

When I analyzed the resulting photos, I found that some were blurry, in motion. I was in a continuous state of doubt, where they ok? …. I also had some images that were nice and crisp,  like the pictures from magazines. The big problem was that I also liked some of the blurred pictures.

And so, this is how I basically made my first great “photographic discovery”: I found that movement can be represented in photos in several ways. I was also impressed by the idea of representing movement and dynamism through a static image. And so I became obsessed by the photography technique which combines moving elements with static ones.

This story of my beginnings as a photographer had a significant impact so that the representation of the movement in

different forms, through photography, remained one of the main directions of expression. Over the years, my first calendar, called “Portraits of Motion“, was a succession of different ways to exhibit the motion in photos.

Panning is a technique in which, while shooting, you focus the camera on a subject in motion and try to move it at about the same speed. In this way, the subject becomes clear while everything around, static, is diffused, blurred and in this way the dynamism of the image is conveyed. This technique fascinates me,  on one hand, because the results are dynamic and original, and on the other hand, it is a technique in which the hazard plays a significant role.

I practiced this technique a lot, in very different situations. I really like using it in street photography. I have tested it a lot in Japan, trying to create one dynamic representation of the street in a static environment..

In this way, I photographed everything that can potentially be in motion on the street : cars, bicycles, people, leaves, animals, water drops, shadows etc … In time I even developed my own workflow to create the pictures.

Everything I had practiced in the street was actually the result of tedious observation of some actions

taking place, without any interference on my side. In this particular picture, the situation was a little different. It was an image-production session with the topic “cycling in the city”. The scenario was based on previous

observations of the Japanese streets. Yet, this took place in another part of the world, in the heart Transylvania, in Cluj Napoca, Romania. I often use this way of “self-inspiration”. In the initial stage, I notice a phenomenon/action in which I do not intervene at all and then I try to re-create what I saw in much more directed conditions, generating my own visual story.

The success of this image is for me given also by the moment when this photo was shot and by the warm light of the day in that very moment, which perfectly complements  the story.