The playground

• Prize
• Photographer
  Felicia Simion, Romania
• Socials
• Website
  http://www.feliciasimionphotography.com

Confronting the end of childhood as I know it, followed by the
beginning of my so-called “adulthood”, has been much easier with my
6-year-old cousin, Felix, around. He is growing up in a small village in
Romania, which many generations from my family have called home
throughout their lives. Felix is developing himself in a traditional spirit,
playing in the sand instead of using a tablet, being happy just by
swimming in a small supermarket pool, riding the bike and gazing at
the Milky Way, undisrupted by car lights and drunk lamps.

At 19-years-old I discovered that there is a way back from gradually
becoming an adult and losing our raw, unaltered spirit. Over the last
two years, I decided to join Felix in his games, where I would be the
photographer, the story-teller, and he would act like various characters
– a blonde little girl, an old man, a dog between dogs – free from any
kind of constraints.

I therefore entered a new world, recalling my own childhood in an
electronic-poor environment that offered me time to breathe and
search for my true identity. The courtyard and its surroundings are
now my playground again, the place where everything is possible once
the sun rises and swallows up the fear of growing old with its
nourishing light.

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the
heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince)

• Biography
  I am a 24-year-old visual artist and freelance photographer living in Bucharest, Romania, constantly looking for new ways to nurture self-expression. The roots of my love for art is to be found in my childhood and adolescence, when I engaged with painting, illustration, music and writing. At the age of 13 I irrecuperably fell for photography, whilst browsing online and coming across the works of both Magnum photographers and young visual artists, whom I felt inspired by. My interests concerning photography gravitate around having a fine art approach to each genre I focus on, from portraiture t
• Awards
  In 2016 I graduated from the Bucharest National University of Arts, Photography and Video department, and in 2018 I successfully finished an MA degree in Ethnology, Cultural Anthropology and Folklore at the University of Bucharest. In 2017 I was chosen to be one of the five young photographers to attend a photography residency in Deauville, France, which resulted in the creation of a project exhibited during the Planche(s) Contact festival. Also, in the same year, I was one of the finalists of the Saatchi Selfie competition, having my work shown during the "Selfie to Self-Expression" exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in London. In 2016, I was selected by PhotoBoite as one of their “30 under 30 Women Photographers”. Over the years, my work has been awarded or commended in competitions such as Paris Prix de la Photographie, Sony World Photography Awards, D&AD Photography Awards, Moscow International Foto Awards, IPA. My images have been published in print and online publications among which: The New York Times, Fisheye Magazine, The Pulitzer Center Blog, Der Spiegel, Calvert Journal, Lens Culture, Il Post.