10 Years in Transylvania (dedikált példány)

Fülszöveg

"By his camcra lie commemorates equally the Siiiulay chiireh celebraticm in ¦|ransylvania, ihe Catholic Uasler Week procession in Cx-ntral America, Samana Santa, ami the aneienl sword dances on llie island of Koreiila in C:roa(ia, before these traditional events disappear from village life. 1 lis photos expa-ss his hope that snnplieity, liiimanity and closeness to nature of this world will survive somehow for tlie future jreneralions. 1 feci thai with one eye he is crying, and smiling through the other. Stephen's compositions command our full attentioTi - the smiling 'visual' half, and the crying 'emotional' half - in fully understanding the need to pre,serve these ancient cultures."
Lihzld Fdfihli
"Now, as 1 look at his photos of Erdély, 1 get a similar feeling to the one 1 had when we first met in 1995. Because of this common interest and same way of thinking 1 cannot imagine he would take a picture that I do not like. Why should 1 think differently of his photos now after so... Tovább

Fülszöveg

"By his camcra lie commemorates equally the Siiiulay chiireh celebraticm in ¦|ransylvania, ihe Catholic Uasler Week procession in Cx-ntral America, Samana Santa, ami the aneienl sword dances on llie island of Koreiila in C:roa(ia, before these traditional events disappear from village life. 1 lis photos expa-ss his hope that snnplieity, liiimanity and closeness to nature of this world will survive somehow for tlie future jreneralions. 1 feci thai with one eye he is crying, and smiling through the other. Stephen's compositions command our full attentioTi - the smiling 'visual' half, and the crying 'emotional' half - in fully understanding the need to pre,serve these ancient cultures."
Lihzld Fdfihli
"Now, as 1 look at his photos of Erdély, 1 get a similar feeling to the one 1 had when we first met in 1995. Because of this common interest and same way of thinking 1 cannot imagine he would take a picture that I do not like. Why should 1 think differently of his photos now after so many years':" 1 le makes no distinctions when it comes to shooting pictures - he shoots what he sees and that makes happiness for himself and for us the viewer, as well as for people in his photographs."
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'TRA.NSYI.VAN1A tl-lRfJUGII my LKNS' l.S I HF. SECOND COtXECTION Or SpiNIJliR'S WORK IN IMilNT. l l SilOW.S A RARE AND PER.SONAL APPROACH lO TRANSYLVANIA LIFE. MANY OF TFIE LMAC;ES-r(K;US ON TME MUSIC AND DANCE CULI URE OF THE I'EfJPLE L\ TR/VNSYLVANIA. THROUGH THE ARI IST'S EYE ANd'hiS UNIQUE VIEWPOINTS, WE GAIN A SEiNSmVITY A.S'U WAR.MTH INTO IHE ANCIENT DE1AILS OF THIS FABLED LANDSCAPE.
SrEPiiEN Spinder is a professional i'lioifjGRAPiier born in Rochester, NY in 1955, .studif.d af Oswuio Staff Uni\'ersity, and continued his formal educxfion with post-c,raduate work at Rochester Insfffufe of Technology. Since 1995, he has lived in Budapest, Hunc;ary successfully developinti a fine art phofog-R.\PHY business. He has been internationally REf.ognizied for his unique, i)lac:k and white impresskjns of i his capital fti-y and recently published his premiere hardcover ari book - buijapest through My LENS, A solitary per.spect1ve. tlils bu«;k and white collec.tion - a 12 year retrospective - is sepia toned which adds a turn-of-the-ce.ntury sense of history to the imacies. i'f has been overwl lelmincily received in many circles boih in budapest and ihe USA.
Ten Years in Transylvania -Through My Lens

elcome to Transylvania, a barely known pocket of Europe's earth lying in Romania. It was part of the Hungarian Kingdom for most of it's thousand year history. The area now called Transylvania became part of the Roman empire in 107 AD, overrun by Visigoths. Huns, Avars and Slavs from 3 - 10th century. St. Stephen converted to Christianity in 1003 and brought it to the pagan tribes of Hungary.
Transylvania, or Erdély in Hungarian, is a historical region in the southeast part of the Carpathian Basin. In recent history it has been part of Romania since 1921. The signing of the Treaty of Trianon at the end of WWI, pushed the Hungarian border about 500 kilometers to the west giving about 2/3 of Hungary's land to Romania. These Hungarians still live there. Transylvania is home to Europe's largest ethnic minority, the Hungarians of Romania. Here cultures have clashed and coexisted for centuries.
It's most defining borders are the Carpathian Mountains on the north and east, the Transylvanian Alps on the south. As a melting pot of isolated traditional customs Transylvania has preserved a great many cultures, telling vestiges of the past. It consists of complex ethnic composition of various cultures -Hungarian, Romanian, German, Saxon, Gypsy. Gyimes - the region at the foot of the Eastern Carpathian Mountains - is said to be the last transitional home of the conquering Magyars on their way to the Carpathian Basin. The Catholic church allowed a great deal of tolerance towards peasant traditions, especially music, sometimes inviting it into the church.
Of the many places in Transylvania I found myself, 1 always seem to gravitate to the following four regions:
Kalotaszeg - a historical, rich ethnological region of Hungarian speaking villages west of Kolozsvár. The region is famous throughout Europe for its rich colorful folk art of clothing, architecture and woodcarving.
Székelyföld - a region in the northeast comer of Transylvania it is considered the outer limit of the Hungarian speaking part of the Carpathian Basin. Inhabited by the Székely's, original 'border guards' for the Hungarian Empire, it also has a rich folk culture. Vissza