Dandelions
"I was adopted when I was four and a half years old. I was sold for 30 million lei and a pair of speakers.
Two years ago when I came to Bucharest everything stopped. My life just stopped. It has gotten way into drugs—I’m talking finding needles on the ground. But I have no aids, I’ve been to the doctor’s two months ago and have my blood test taken. But I do have hepatitis C. I could drop dead any second.”
- Loredana / Gara de Nord
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Dandelions is an ongoing photography project documenting the lives and struggles of HIV-at-risk women living with opioid addiction in Bucharest, Romania.
In 2018 I travelled to Bucharest to document issues of public health and I got to know Alina, a social worker at a local anti-aids charity. She took me on board the ambulance as the team offered syringe exchange and testing in notorious parts of Bucharest. That night there were women crowding outside the ambulance. One of them was Cristina, who showed me her scars as if to say “look at what I’ve been through”. She was struggling with addiction working on the streets to pay her bills. There were many others like her but each with a unique story to be told.
Ever since then I have returned to Bucharest to document the faces of this forgotten social crisis with a compassionate gaze. I remain moved by these survivors’ resilience and hope to make justice to their stories with this body of work.
In loving memory of Cristina Angela Ștefan 🕊 (1984-2022).