TITLE: Bear dancer (Girl with a bear skin)

Little girl with striking eyes in front of the house in Asau where the "bears" get dressed for the parade to Comanesti. Bear dancing, i.e., dancing in bear skins, around Christmas and New Year, is a tradition specific to a small area around Comanesti, Moldova, Romania and is supposed to be related to the yearly renewal of nature. The dancers are both men and women, children and grown-ups.

AUTHOR: Corneliu Cazacu (Germany)

My name is Corneliu Cazacu and I am a Danish-Romanian photographer and writer based in Munich, Germany. Specialised in nature/architecture/reportage and music photography (see www.rockphotographer.us).

Published in newspapers and magazines such as Romania libera, Foreign Policy, EUobserver, Dilema veche, etc. As a music photographer provided images for the website and tour posters of Banned from Utopia, the US Frank Zappa tribute band, and Robert Martin, its leader. Collaborations with several other bands and musicians, in particular those participating in the yearly Zappanale festival in Germany..

Winner of two first prizes and a second prize in the "Mihai Vasile" photography contest organised by the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism, Romania, 2015 (http://www.premiile-mihai-vasile.com/corneliu-cazacu).

Winner of the SIR photo contest Munich, 2016 (photographing integration of refugees in Munich).

Published in the April 2015 National Geographic US edition (two-page spread).

Winner of Travel Photographer Society contest 2017 (People & Culture; http://travelphotographersociety.com/tps-awards-top-45/).

Some of my photographs can be found in private collections in the US, Germany, France, Denmark, Romania, etc.

Exhibitions:

1996-1997: Plougmann & Vingtoft Headquarters, Copenhagen, Denmark
1998-2016: Collective yearly exhibition in the European Patent Office, Munich, Germany
2015: Presentation of Maidan revolution photos and participation in the panel debate "Ukraine in the eyes of Eastern European Intelligentsia" in Bruxelles, Belgium