Can you feel it? Images have taste. They have texture. Flavour. They have madness, if you don't feel the madness behind the rules, then they become boring. Photography isn't just a story. There's a secret that, like all great mysteries, is in plain sight. Namely that a photograph is never just about the photographer, the camera, the lens or the subject, it's about you. What have I got to do with an Annie Leibovitz portrait? Nothing, unless it gives me a certain mood. The magic is always about you. While you were reading, I photographed your soul.
Andra Toropoc
Every year she changed her profile picture, convinced that her metamorphosis was eagerly awaited. In fact, it was only the clothes that were different as she was always posing as a bowling pin, with the same grimace barely shown through her bangs. This time she put the selfie in a swimsuit to quickly impress her follower. But she couldn't believe her eyes when she read the first reaction: are you in heat, Granny? Yeah, she had exaggerated, but she was fed up of being the spinster her neighbours called her. She was also tired of doing naked yoga on the balcony, waiting in vain for a paparazzo.
Elia Ghinescu
It's February 2029 and my son is tall, slim, handsome, at peace. He'll be 19 in April. I remember breastfeeding him and wondering why so many boys have been born in the last two or three years, far too many. On the radio running on batteries in the hallway is the warbling announcement calling all men to arms, to come with papers and suitcases. He packs his apples too. And a book. With my mute soul I slip between the tabs the first photograph taken of me holding him in my arms. Cannon fodder, mom, we're all cannon fodder, and he walks out the door.
(Translated by Adela Neacșu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.