The Unique Roma Culture of Keldelari

2023–2025

They always made me stop and watch their strange world. The mystical Roma world of the Keldelari. Sometimes you walk through town and there it is, a picture straight out of some film: long traditional dresses shimmering with sequins, multicoloured spangles and lace, embroidered with flowers and extraordinary patterns… They say those dresses and skirts carry so many layers and weights that they can weigh up to ten kilograms! They step with majesty and gentleness. They talk quietly about something in their Romani dialect. Suddenly one of them smiles, and you notice with astonishment that all their teeth are gold. Look closer — a very young girl, leading children by the hand, often fair-haired ones. So neat and clean.

I kept wondering: how do they manage to live in this authenticity, keeping their families safe from passing fashions? How do they remain untouched by the sharp remarks that sometimes fly after them? In a word, to us they are mysterious and closed.

But I knew that as soon as I spent time inside their world, I would find the answers. So it is no wonder that I wanted to capture in photographs these unique people who live alongside us in the same region. Yet because this community is very private, it took me a year and a half before they agreed to receive me at home…

Later this series of photographs was seen in many prestigious international galleries. And in November 2024 the series «The unique Roma culture of Keldelari» was selected among the 30 best photo stories of the year by Prix de la Photographie in the «State of the world 2024» competition. Paris, France.

Photographs of the series