Guțu Maria

About

Maria Guțu, born in 1996 in the city of Glodeni, Republic of Moldova, is a remarkable documentary photographer whose works explore profound themes such as isolated places, youth, the concept of home, and the relationship between people and their environment. A graduate of film image studies at the Academy of Music, Theatre, and Fine Arts in Chișinău in 2020, she honed her skills at the Docdocdoc School of Modern Photography in Saint Petersburg in 2022. Her career has been marked by international successes, including being shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards in 2022 and 2023, awards at the British Journal of Photography's Portrait of Humanity initiative in 2023-2024, the VID Foundation mentorship grant in 2023, and, most prestigiously, the Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award in 2024 for her long-term project "Homeland," dedicated to Moldovan villages and their people. From the beginning of her career, Maria has collaborated with renowned institutions and platforms, being named one of Artpil's "30 Under 30" photographers in 2018, a finalist at the People Photography Award in 2020, and a member of the international collective Women Photograph since 2021. The "Homeland" project started in 2019 with a grant from the Center for Documentary Photography (CDFD) in Romania, inspired by road trips and authors like Jack Kerouac, leading to group exhibitions in countries such as Romania artencounters.ro, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, France, and the United States. She actively contributes to the local cultural scene through initiatives like "Taxi Cultural," which decentralizes art in villages by offering free workshops to young people outside of Chisinau, and participates in artistic residencies that inspire her to document Moldovan traditions and landscapes. Maria's passion for photography was born in childhood, in Glodeni, where she observed the world through the car window on trips to Chisinau, and her parents' work abroad emphasized her connection to the notion of "home" and her grandparents. Self-critical and dedicated, she lives off residencies and projects, rejecting the stereotype of the poor artist and advocating for grants and creative freedom in Moldova, a land "rich in subjects that need to be documented." Using medium-format black-and-white film, inspired by masters like August Sander or Diane Arbus, Maria prioritizes sincerity and human connections, dreaming of developing the local art scene without excessive institutionalization.