Homeland

Homeland is my personal story. As a child my parents emigrated abroad for work, and left me to spend my time with grandparents in the picturesque and remote northern region of Moldova. I usually identify myself with the children and teenagers who I photograph. Homeland is my main long term documentary project that I began in 2019 and am still working on. This project seeks out the connections between young people from the northern Republic of Moldova and their surrounding scenery. My work itself evokes a nostalgic yearning for family, the past, and simply, life itself. I set out on a quest to find a homeland in the faces of the people I photograph. One third of Moldova’s population has emigrated, and the number of young citizens leaving only increases each year. Homeland is a poetic quest for roots, for a home whose meaning always changes, even in the understanding of children.”   

Maria Guțu (1996) is a Moldovan documentary photographer, who is interested in remote places, youth, the notion of home and the relation between humans and the environment. In 2022, she finished her studies at the Docdocdoc School of Modern Photography, Saint Petersburg. Earlier, in 2020, she graduated in cinematography at the Academy of Music, Theatre, and Fine Arts in Chisinau. Named as one of Artpil’s ‘30 under 30’ women photographers, in 2022 and 2023 she was shortlisted at the Sony World Photography Awards, and has participated in collective exhibitions in Romania, Slovenia, France and the United States.