VCU alumna's photo portfolio featured in LensWork magazine

By Malorie Burkett

Kathleen Laraia McLaughlin's photograph portfolio from Maramures, Romania, is featured in the December 2002/January 2003 issue of LensWork magazine. McLaughlin is a recent alumna of the VCU School of the Arts.

The portfolio entitled, "Maramures: The Color of Hay," is a collection of photos that captures the ordinary lives and traditions of the people in the Maramuresh region of northern Transylvania, Romania, through all four seasons. McLaughlin said she wanted to capture the rural peasant lifestyle before the people of Maramures became further compromised by contact with the West.

"One of the most pressing challenges facing today's documentary photographer is to preserve a record of disappearing lifestyles before globalization further homogenizes distinctive cultures," said McLaughlin.

Attracted to this area because of her love for Balkan folk dancing, McLaughlin discovered that the area was unique among the former Soviet Bloc for the way the Maramures had preserved their way of life.

Beginning in the fall of 1999, McLaughlin and her husband, Henry, lived for one year in a remote village in the Maramuresh region. McLaughlin obtained intimate portraits of private rituals and quiet moments of the Maramures people, including religious ceremonies, crafts, farming techniques, wedding traditions and funeral practices.

"Though they do not know it now, these peasants are loosing their customs in the same way our forebears lost theirs," said McLaughlin.

McLaughlin received her Master of Fine Arts degree from VCU's department of film and photography in 2001, and received her Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from VCU in 1990. She is living in Romania for a second year on a Fulbright Senior Scholarship and a National Endowment for the Humanities funded International Exchanges and Research Board grant.

The issue of LensWork with McLaughlin's Maramures portfolio is available at major bookstores now. For more information, visit www.lenswork.com.