I Photographed Romania For A Project Called "Between Mud And Sky"

"There's a place where the children play in the streets and ride horses between sky and mud."

I found this place in Romania 2012, during my travels by bus. I don't know why destiny brought me to this place where the people still move by horse and the children run and play showing curiosity, vulnerability, and openness.

The village was founded by Catholic Saxons, but the last of them died in the 70s',  fortified churches ruins and the abandoned cemetery remain.

Most parts of local adults go to Italy or Spain to work, so the majority of people who live there all year are children and elderly people. The grandparents or (more usually) brothers and sisters (the ones that don't want to go to school or get a job as bricklayers or horse trainers) take care of the little ones.

I was immediately enchanted by the power of life, identity and the fight between the sense of abandonment left by who gone away to find work and the force of the vitality and the fleeting nature of youth. I let myself be carried away by these feelings.

For many years this work was just some small pictures on a Facebook profile and a print on the wall of my parent's house, now "Between Mud and Sky" is the first publication of Buran prod.

More info: cosimoattanasio.me