RAUL POENAR — photographer: “Romania reveals itself only to those who love it or truly want to know it. And that is a very good thing!”
In the interview published by Formula AS on 19 March 2020, Catalin Manole talks to photographer Raul Poenar from Orăștie about walking, attentiveness to nature and the stories behind his images. This archive page presents the themes of their conversation and retains the photographs and captions from the original material.
Landscape in the mist
Photography and attentiveness to nature
Raul Poenar speaks of the camera as an opportunity to notice the light, trees and details that people often hurry past. For him, photography and walking complement each other: getting closer to nature brings joy, peace and respect for the places discovered.
Raul Poenar
The interview follows the story of the winter photograph from Fundătura Ponorului that won third place in the ethnographic photography competition in Cluj. The photographer recalls the climb through snow, the stop in a barn and the encounter with an isolated village where people live in harsh conditions.
Another account concerns an outing to Straja, starting from Lupeni, when an abrupt change in the weather caught him in fog and a blizzard on the mountain. Poenar describes the experience as a lesson in vulnerability and the respect owed to the mountain.
Buceș-Vulcan. The beauty of the Apuseni
Landscapes, people and places protected through discretion
The photographer says he is drawn both to landscapes and to people captured within them. Sometimes even trees can become characters: the photograph from Romos forest began with the light that highlighted two trees standing close together, perceived as an embrace.
Romos forest
The conversation also includes hikes with other photographers from Hunedoara, sometimes covering 15–20 kilometres in a day. Poenar explains why some discoveries remain known only within a small circle: he fears that publishing their locations would attract litter and damage. In this context, he also speaks of a chain of waterfalls on the way towards Petroșani without revealing the exact location.
Spring and the joy of walking
After autumn, spring is his favourite season. In the interview, he evokes flowering orchards, forests and clearings with snowdrops around Ponorici, Cioclovina and Vârtoape. Sometimes he prefers walking to taking photographs: directly experiencing a place can matter more than the image kept of it.
Fundătura Ponorului
For the spring of that year, the photographer planned to return to the Vulcan-Buceș area in the Apuseni, drawn by the plum orchards and the greening forests. The interview remains an invitation to observe nature closely and discover it without haste.
Snowdrops in the Dacian clearings
Source: Formula AS — the interview with Raul Poenar, Catalin Manole, 19 March 2020, issue 1407. Agent Green archive summary; the full interview can be read at the source.
