Photographs are an excellent way to keep things like people, places, and events ‘alive.’ Sometimes we forget how our loved ones or the places where we grew up looked; that’s why keeping pictures is so important. Knowing that, a film student named Victor Galusca who found old and forgotten pictures decided he would return them to the people from the photographs.
Victor managed to find 6 of them. He traveled to a town called Roșietici in Moldova and had a chat with them: about their lives, experiences, and memories. All of them were very happy to receive the photographs. The pictures were captured by the only photographer in the village named Zaharia Cușnir.
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Zaharia Cușnir (middle)
Image credits: zahariacusnir
The photographer is responsible for these pictures. He spent his life in Roșietici, Moldova, and captured the lives of other people in the village. He was born in 1912 and died in 1993.
Axenia Bulhac
“She knew about the photo because her relatives had seen it online, but when I gave her a print as a kind of Christmas present, she was very happy. She was looking for a place in the house to hang it.
I know she worked in a kindergarten and looked after children. Unfortunately, we couldn’t communicate much because her hearing is gone. We just smiled and shared a cup of tea after I gave her the print.”
Image credits: zahariacusnir
Tamara Cusnir
“She is a distant relative of Zaharia Cusnir and lived in the same village. Although she remembers the photographer as an “intelligent, very interesting person,” she mainly spent time with his daughters, so knew Zaharia only as an authority figure in the house of her friends.
She fell in love with an accountant from a collective farm who was coming and going from the village on Soviet military service. But eventually, he chose another woman and Tamara lost touch with him. It’s a romance that is not forgotten. She had a photograph of him in her private collection that she let me see. After I met with her, I found the accountant living in another village. His name is Vasile Tokarchuk.”
Image credits: zahariacusnir
Vasile Tokarchuk
“He was sure he would marry Tamara. He remembered how beautiful she was. They used to spend evenings down by the river talking into the night. Even Tamara’s father wanted her to marry him. But one day they had an argument, and he decided she wasn’t for him.
But he never forgot Tamara. I saw some photos that Tokarchuk had kept from his youth. One print I recognized and noticed that he had cut her out of the frame.
Now his wife has died, and Tamara’s husband has, as well, so they are free. I want to offer to reunite them, perhaps in the village where their romance began.”
Image credits: zahariacusnir
Aurel Sarmaniuc
“He is one of around 300 people still living in the village of Rosietici, but he and his son are thinking of relocating to Germany or somewhere else to work. His son owns 200 sheep, but it’s getting too hard to manage them. He claims the shepherds they have hired are alcoholics and the work is getting too hard for Sarmaniuc to do himself.
Sarmaniuc and his wife were amazed when they saw the photo. You can see in the portrait the toe of his shoe is split. His wife was teasing him, saying, ‘What is with your shoes? If I had known you went around with broken shoes, I never would have married you!'”
Image credits: zahariacusnir
Sergiu Cebotari
“When I showed him the images, he started to cry. He worked all his life as a postman. Now he’s very weak and can only lie in bed.
He first got to know the photographer after Cusnir loaned Cebotari his bicycle – a rare and precious object in Soviet Moldova — and the youngster returned it in perfect condition with a bottle of wine as a gift. That first interaction created the trust that became a close friendship, and he later became a part of Cusnir’s family.
Cebotari was in the same class as one of Cusnir’s three daughters and fell in love with her during their school days. The two were married with Cusnir’s blessing and lived happily. But Ioana died in 2019 and, since then, Cebotari’s health has deteriorated.
He told me from his bed, ‘This isn’t life.’ He’s only waiting to die.”
Image credits: zahariacusnir
Vera Borsh
“Cusnir only photographed her twice, so she didn’t remember him well, but she recalled exactly why the photo was taken.
She had made the dress herself. Once she had finished sewing it, she went looking for Cusnir so he could take her photo in her new clothes. He was the only photographer for many kilometers around, so she had to seek him out.
She didn’t say anything about having a hard life. I gathered she just lived the simple existence of rural Moldovan people.”
Image credits: zahariacusnir
The post Person Sets Out To Find People From Pictures Taken Around 50 Years Ago, Succeeds In Finding 6 Of Them first appeared on Bored Panda.
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