The nude self-portraits of this budding young photographer from Moldavia explore her relationship with identity, the body and time, inviting us into a strong, sensual world of embroidery and pearls.

Gabriela Crăciun is just 23 years old and already seems destined for a bright future. This young artist prodigy left her native Moldavia on her own for the capital of Paris at the age of 19. Since then, she has been making her way on the photographic scene. In 2024, she presented one of her series, Le plus beau jour de ma vie, in a group show at the Rencontres d'Arles as part of her school, EFET.

Her work takes an in-depth look at the history and heritage of her Eastern European country, probing themes of family memory, female identity and vanishing traditions such as embroidery. A skill inherited from her grandmother, which she strives to preserve. She incorporates this decorative art into her prints to create a link between past and present, reinterpreting it in a contemporary context. Her creative process straddles the border between the intimate and the universal, blending technique and photography to question identity and transmission.

BETWEEN MATERIALITY AND ESSENTIALITY

The two series that interest us here are Alma Mater and Seconde peau, nude self-portraits full of grace and delicacy. In Alma Mater, she exposes her body covered with pearls sewn onto her skin like " drops of blood, suffering and passion ". Her silhouette, representing women as the pure embodiment of life, becomes a symbol of human existence. Pearls become a reflection of our strength and vulnerability. " They are a reminder of our inseparable link with nature, our nurturing mother," she emphasizes, adding: " I am a woman, I am life, I am the Alma Mater. "

With Seconde peau, her body this time represents clothing as protection, social identification and means of expression. Here, she combines photography and graphic design to highlight its history over the centuries. Her images repeat the same view, showing how clothing, depending on the model of the time, modifies or even transforms the perception of the body. " Like a corset, it [sculpts] the silhouette into a fantasized or real ideal. "

For Gabriela Crăciun, these two photographic series represent not only "an act of defiance" against " her conservative culture and religious upbringing ", but also and above all " a therapeutic benefit " to better learn to accept her physical being.

GABRIELACRACIUN.COM
@GABRIELA_CRACIUN_