In the spring of 2016, film student Victor Galușca found thousands of photographs of Moldovan village life between the 1950s and 1970s: the school student, who was visiting the Northern Moldovan village of Roșietici for his diploma film on the abandoned houses left behind by mass emigration has noticed some photographic negatives in the rubble of an abandoned house.

The pictures were originally taken by the photographer Zaharia Cușnir, an unknown amateur photographer who died in 1993.
In one of these houses, Galușca found 4,000 photo negatives gathered in suitcases in the attic. When Galușca spoke to the photographer’s daughter, she was uninterested in the collection and described the photographs as garbage that “no one needs.”

Together with other photographers, Galușca worked to develop the photographs, co-editing a photo book and organizing exhibitions of Cușnir’s pictures in Moldova and Romania. Now, he’s made those photographs accessible to all on zaharia.md.

Cușnir’s portraits, taken with a Lyubitel’ camera (‘Amateur’ in English), capture the inhabitants of Roșietici between the 1950s and the 1970s, at key community ceremonies such as weddings and funerals, as well as on ordinary days at home or at work. All of his photographs are taken outdoors, under natural light.

Their charm lies in the contrast between the classical and somber central composition, and the spontaneous figures caught off-guard on the edges of the pictures.

After taking photography lessons from one of his nephews, Cușnir began cycling from village to village in his region, shooting technically perfect, scrappily framed portraits.
Cușnir’s pictures are unique for being at once posed and static, yet bursting with life.

Funded by the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Fellowship, the online archive of Zaharia Cușnir was launched in 2018. The entire project was created for the distribution and enhancement of the entire Zaharia photo collection.

More info on https://www.zaharia.md/