Elise Crawley

I really liked the photos by Tamas Dezso, “Romania—On Europe’s Eastern Edge.”  One of the reasons that I really liked them is that they were all in really vivid color.  Even though there are some things in the photos that are tragic, like death, there is still a sense that the people living there are really real and that they’re surviving.  At the same time, the colors and the way that the scenes are set up are vivid and beautiful. 

Personally, I think that black and white photos of tragedy have been done so many times.   It’s not that they lose their impact, but I think that the contrast of them to something like these photos by Dezso make the photos of Romanian people distinctive. 

I would never say that there is a tragedy that doesn’t deserve to get a picture and to be documented, because humanity has to look at its own flaws until the full force of the horror it commits forces it to change.  However, I think that we can’t make it to that place without seeing some kind of hope.