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Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin
e-mail:
A 14-day Photography Travel Class
Transylvania, Romania
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Introduction: At the turn of the Millennium, Kathleen traveled to Romania to photograph old peasant ways of Maramures. Her lifelong interest in traditions, and adulthood joy in Balkan Folk Dancing led her to explore the isolated villages of Northern Transylvania. For a year she and her husband Henry lived as peasants do -- relying on a wood burning stove, bathing without running water, and sharing one roof with three generations. They kept a travelogue website, www.leafpile.com which has over 3,000 images. Kathleen spent a second year living in the Transylvanian city of Cluj-Napoca. She was a 2002-2003 recipient of a Fulbright Senior Scholarship and an NEH funded IREX grant. She taught photography at the University of Art in Cluj and continued to photograph traditions and Romanian culture. Currently, Kathleen exhibits her photographs and teaches photography part-time in Los Angeles.
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Trip
Description: The highlight of your trip will be over a week spent in the rugged villages of Maramares. Students will stay in the homes of peasants; eating the local cuisine, observing the farm duties, animal markets, and religious rituals of people who have lived off their land for countless generations. This unique experience gives students unparalleled opportunities to capture on film a way of life that is fast vanishing from the world. We will spend a day in a pristine mountain pass for the "Circle of Prislop" dance festival. Costumes, music, and dance styles from every region o f Romania will be on display. At Moisei we will witness the procession of virgins to honor Mother Mary at the Pilgrimage to Moisei: a five hundred year old Orthodox monastery. Students will spend several days in Cluj-Napoca, an ancient Roman settlement which was the capital of Transylvania when it was ruled by the Austrio-Hungarian empire. It is a town of exquisite architecture, high culture and breezy cafes. Romanians, Hungarians and Roma (gypsies) mix together in the markets and piatzas of this fine Old World city offering endless possibilities for exciting street photography. While staying at a hotel near the city center of Cluj,
students will have the option to visit villages where Roma and
Hungarians live in peaceful coexistence. Nowhere else in the world can
outsiders mix with Roma to the same degree of comfort and safety as in
the settled villages of Northern Transylvania. |
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| Day 1 Arrive in Budapest, Hungary Evening dinner to unite group and celebrate. Overnight: Budapest! Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Depart Hungary |
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