About the author

[September 2005, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania]

Andrei Stavilă (or, without diacritics, for internet search: Andrei Stavila). I have a MA in Philosophy (‘Al. I. Cuza’ University, Iasi, Romania), a MPhil in Philosophy (Central European University, Budapest, Hungary) and a MRes in Political Science (European University Institute, Florence, Italy). I am currently a PhD student in political theory at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy). Check out my professional website (in English) and my personal blog (Romanian/English).

I probably have too many hobbies for my little spare time, and photography is one of them. I’m trying to improve both the way I see and my mastering of the grammar of the shot (this is why I always welcome constructive criticism). I am interested in street photography, portrait photography, documentary and photojournalism (in this order). Sometimes I also take photos of nature and animals, but generally don’t like shooting sports.

I don’t like talking too much about a photographer’s gear, simply because – as Ken Rockwell puts it – your camera doesn’t matter. If you don’t believe me, just check what David Burnett has done with a disposable Holga. Or (with all due humility) my first pictures on this site taken with a point-and-shoot camera. And if all these still don’t convince you, then just take a quick look below at Miroslav Tichy‘s home made camera (click on photos to enlarge). Check further Tichy’s official website and watch more of his photos.

(source1, source2)

My first camera was a Smena 8M. After using some no name point-and-shoot cameras, I think I took some pretty good photos with my Canon PowerShot A430 and with my Nikon Coolpix L100. Sometimes I’m still using them for fun and upload the results on this blog (for example, check my first pictures on this site which were taken with the point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix). My actual workhorses are Nikon D7000 and Nikkor 16-85. I also own a pretty shitty Hama Tripod Star 700 EF Digital which I hope I will replace soon.

Gear I intend to buy when money will allow: Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm 1:1.8G DX; Nikon AF-S 70-300 mm VR; Nikon SB-400 Speedlight; and some decent tripod.