Vrăjitoare

Author: Lucia Sekerková
Co-author: -

Year of foundation: 2018

Tomas Bata University in Zlín
Faculty of Multimedia Communications
Advertising Photography Studio
Degree: Master
Year of studies: 5

Photographer Lucia Sekerková and ethnologist Ivana Šusterová tried to connect photographic work with ethnological research. For four years, they worked on a suggestive theme of Romanian women from groups of Olašské Roma, who make a living from divination and witchcraft. In recent years, interest in these services in Romanian society has been growing again, the topic is lively discussed in Romanian households, the media and in police files. Both authors summarized their work in a double book, which consists of a photographic part and a text essay. Photography in the Czech Republic has a long tradition in Czech and Slovak photography. But the world of soothsayers and witches has so far gone unnoticed. The author also chooses different means of expression - she photographs in color, openly admits a certain degree of production, because already in the very rituals of fortune tellers, a large degree of suggestiveness and influence on the client's emotions is necessarily represented. Lucia Sekerková catches these fortune tellers in a special rift between Christianity and paganism, as well as between the old and new worlds, magic and the Internet. The project was created in close cooperation with ethnological research. Lucia Sekerková does not reveal to us whether she believes in the magical power of these women. She managed to penetrate their environment for a while, to be present in their rituals, perhaps to become part of their marketing and media practices for a while, and to bring an interesting statement about the unforgettable moments she experienced there with them.