Xposure 2023 visitors get rare insights into the 30-year transformation of a remote Romanian town through the lens of Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

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The Scottish documentary photographer takes audiences on a fascinating journey at the international festival taking place until February 15 in Sharjah

The 7th annual International Photography Festival ‘Xposure’ turned the spotlight on renowned documentary photographer, Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert, who provided the festival’s visitors rare insights into the decades-long transformation of the Roma community of Sintesi in Romania through a 30-year project he carried out in the otherwise hard-to-access community.

During a presentation titled ‘The Roma Of Sintesti, Romania: A 30-Year Project’, which he made before the Xposure 2023 visitors on the first day of the festival on Thursday, he narrated a captivating visual story of the daily life and aspirations of the residents of this community as they shed their Communist skin to adapt Western values of modernism and economic growth.  

“Initially, the community sold pots at markets, but gradually they began businesses like buying and selling scrap metal on a large scale,” Jeremy noted as he sifted through black and white images he took from 1990 - 1997, which largely depict the economic crisis and the social turbulence the Roma community had been facing in those years.

The community’s development as they gradually transformed their humble dwellings into grand mansions and animal-driven carts made way for fast cars has been symbolically captured by the Scottish photographer as he transformed to coloured images from 2006 to 2019.

“I was always welcomed and accepted by the Roma community and so was my photography. I never felt like an outsider”, the photographer noted, adding, “the women are still denied education opportunities and employment”.

Work, social life, marriages, births and deaths - all chronicled and depicted masterfully by him. Sutton-Hibert’s project is a valuable piece of work from a key period in human history that will educate and inform generations to come.

Several more inspiring and engaging talks will continue to take place at the world’s largest photography festival until February 15, at Expo Centre Sharjah. To register for a seminar, workshop or any other event that captures your interest, visit https://xposure.ae/.