- Aaron Louis Fowler USA
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This is a photograph of the table I used for one year. In that time I learned how to play with knives and I never cleaned it.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Adriana M. USA / Netherlands
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This photo was taken with my best friend at one of her her various houses. The places we have been together are part of my childhood landscape. They are magical and glittering. I look back on this photo and feel warm nostalgia. She is leaving for boarding school far away and I feel like something is coming to an end.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Agata Balcerzak Poland
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I took this photo at my grandfather's 80th birthday. We made a small family celebration. This is the table: cake, mugs and 50-year-old plates. It was a warm day, and left warm feelings inside.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Ai-Lun Huang UK
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There was no bed in the new flat, so my boyfriend and I both slept on this sofa for three months until the bed arrived. What a memory!
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Aimee Brodeur USA
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This image is special since it is what represents happiness to me. Never contrived, never fully planned, and by his side.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Aitor Gametxo Spain
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I like this picture because I took it in the countryside where I lived during my childhood. Everything is so green and wet which is how I actually would describe the whole Basque Country. I was raised in a little town close to the woods and to the beach. It is so relaxing going there with friends or just alone to have a good time. The Basque Country is a really rocky land, there are a lot of mountains and my hometown with its 7,000 inhabitants is really isolated.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Alex Meininger Germany
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These pictures were the first ones I took after I had an oparation last year. The reason I was so happy about these pictures is that I almost died during the operation because I was bleeding unexpectedly strong.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Alexander Kostinskyi Ukraine
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Alexander Binder Germany
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Alexander Kelpman Estonia
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featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Alexandra Perovic Serbia
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Alexi Hobbs Canada
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I don't really have a favorite photograph or a favourite song or band or colour, because my favourites always depend on my mood and state of mind. This one was chosen as a reaction, right after I read the following quote:
'Life is not significant details, illuminated by a flash, fixed forever. Photographs are.' (Susan Sontag)
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Aline Smithson USA
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I selected this long time favorite as it reflects what I am drawn to in the world: humor, joy, and things that are odd.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Ana Cabaleiro Spain
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Anastasiya Podroyko Russia
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Andrea Bakacs UK
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This is my favorite image and I'm lucky to say that I made it. It's my favorite because it reminds me of everything I was and didn't know, and everything I found out I am and will always be. It was taken on a regular trip up to the mountains to snowboard, which was always my first love even before photography. The place is Oregon, my home state. I'm originally Hungarian from Romania, specifically from the northwest portion called Transylvania, so my love of the woods and mountains goes back much further than going up in the wilderness of Oregon.
I started riding Mt. Hood as soon as my family had enough money to rent skis, at about 13 years old, not long after getting our green cards. I continued doing so up until the decision to leave my very short lived amateur career for the Big Apple to study photography. About an hour from the house I grew up, I remember driving up by myself sometimes in blizzard-like conditions, having to stop and put chains on until my hands were bloody, just like I had to on this day.
The feelings I have in the woods — those existential moments — are what stay and have stayed with me over the years. Even now when I go ride I'm constantly taking my board and gloves off and freezing my hands just to stop and take it all in for a moment, to record what it's like to be there, to be alive, to be in awe, to be in wonder. I'm an environmentalist so I suppose my green beginnings come from growing up near the woods and mountains. That's where I first became aware of how special it all is and just how lucky we are to interact with it the way we do. It's magic really, and that's what this picture will always remind me of.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Angus R. Shamal Netherlands
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Anne Schwalbe Germany
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This drawer is on my grandparents' boat. My sister and I spent the summers of our childhood there. On this board every person or object that has fallen overboard is eternalized. This is an ongoing process.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Anthony Tortorici USA
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I fell in love with a girl a month before she left the country to study abroad for a year. I didn't know her very well before she left, and over the course of the next year we had a very long distance relationship. Her year away ended and we spent the whole summer together, nearly every day. From that we realized it just wasn't meant to be. We were attracted to the romance of distance. I will never forget her.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Anya Jasbär Italy
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'Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.
For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter
that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive.Be forever dead in Eurydice-more gladly arise
into the seamless life proclaimed in your song.
Here, in the realm of decline, among momentary days,
be the crystal cup that shattered even as it rang.Be-and yet know the great void where all things begin,
the infinite source of your own most intense vibration,
so that, this once, you may give it your perfect assent.To all that is used-up, and to all the muffled and dumb
creatures in the world's full reserve, the unsayable sums,
joyfully add yourself, and cancel the count.'(Rilke)
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Aoife O'Dwyer Ireland
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This is the only photo I have of these people. They were in my life only briefly but for that time they defined it. Their names are Michael and Caroline. Michael took his own life and I lost touch with Caroline to the extent that I cannot even reconnect with her online in the vast interconnectedness of it all. I am not sure if she even knows that Michael is dead.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Arianna Sanesi Italy
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My boyfriend Andrea. The only thing I can say: for me, it is so much more difficult to love someone if you're being loved back. And this is the image I prefer, because it reminds me of that feeling.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Ariel Rosenbloom USA
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This is a photo of my best friend Matt's first tattoo. He didn't tell anyone he got it, I just happened to notice it and asked him if it was real. 'Maybe', he said. He has over seven tattoos now, most of which he's done himself. This photo reminds me of the great nights we used to have in New Jersey, breaking into abandoned buildings and old schools, getting fucked up and staying up all night.
I don't see him very often now because we live in different places. I miss him.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Arun Sood Netherlands
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In 2009, I moved abroad to study in Amsterdam. Despite not knowing anyone upon arrival, I was lucky enough to move in with three great flatmates in the legendary Flat 51. Our flat became a social hub with regular parties, music and an all-round good vibe. This picture of my flatmate Andre was taken from my room and peers into the common area. It immediately reminds me of the flat's vibrant atmosphere.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Asen Ognyanov Bulgaria / Canada
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Ash Bowland Belgium
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This is a picture I took in Brussels. On that day we were in love and inspired, as we often are. But looking at this photograph now, it tells me more than any feeling could that day. This woman's eyes tell me more than I knew myself. I learned to live with the little you give. Now things have changed. Nothing will ever be enough anymore.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Asya Baranova Russia
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This is really my favourite! I use it like a bookmark and bring it everywhere with me. It's from last summer's holiday. I was on top of an unbelievable mountain with my friend and this funny cow. There was nobody else there like we were alone in the whole universe.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Benedikt Rietzel Austria
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This is my dog Yupi. He is cute and ugly at the same time and one of the most photogenic things I have ever taken pictures of.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Beni Bischof Switzerland
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This was around 1994 in Widnau, Switzerland. Spring. My skateboard gang and I built our own miniramp! Awesome! Right in front of the neighbor's house.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Bo Bae Kim South Korea
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Bobby Doherty USA
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We left the city for the first time in what felt like forever. On the last day we joked about not coming back. Just staying in Vermont and surviving off berries and shit. I was not not completely serious.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Brian Weiland Japan
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I'm the one in the red shirt, the girl and I are now married, and the man with the hat is my best friend. We were all living in Tokyo that summer. Nearly every night was a falling in love night, the right amount of booze night, the right kind of morning the next day night. And because of the love I felt from these two, I began to see that the One is not absent from anything, and yet is separated from all things. It's a paradox of life that our bodies persist while the way we are, our personalities, always changes.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Bruno Zhu Portugal
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Hong Kong. Wanting to go back. I need.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Caitlin Duennebier UK
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In the beginning of March 2010, Maxwell came to live in my sitting room. At the end of the month I woke up one morning and he was gone. I have not heard from him since.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Cara Tobe France
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That is my boyfriend standing on the front lawn of my Aunt's house in Louisville, Kentucky. The woman on the stoop is my mother. I've spent the majority of my childhood Christmas's and summer holidays staying at that house and it was nice to be able to introduce my boyfriend to my family and show him where I'm from.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Carlito Schilirò Japan
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I've been photographing Maria for exactly 10 years now trying to follow her through every mood, her ups and downs. There's a whole world inside of her and there's even more hidden behind her eyes. Because eyes, her eyes are everything to me. My lifetime project revolves around her.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Carlos Café Brazil
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This is the result of a moment of relaxation during a recent photo shoot. I love those things!
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Caroline Hancox UK
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This is my boyfriend asleep. I love it because even though you can't see his face and its a bit blurred, it is exactly what I see when I wake up in the mornings.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Chang Ming Lee Singapore
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This is an old picture of my sisters and I when we used to take hikes early in the morning. Enjoying nature as a family.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Charlie Hillhouse Australia
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This is a photograph of my old girlfriend. She studied Graphic Design at the same university as me and hated it. On her graduation night she got really drunk and told everyone there they were shit. When she got home she decided to have a bath and this is when the photograph was taken.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Charlie Engman UK
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The man in this photograph looks exactly, exactly like my Dad, and every time I look at it I can't help thinking Dad does this, too, and it makes me feel guilty for going so far from home and never calling.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Christian Stotz Germany
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This guy is Andy and I won't tell you the true story behind this no comment photo. I will leave it up to your imagination. Maybe he's just practicing a new kind of fancy dance style or his forearm is accidently glued to his face or he's just cleaning his eye. In any case, this photo made me laugh so hard, my stomach is still aching today.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Christie Ann Young USA
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This is the window seat in the home I grew up in, but haven't lived in for seven years. I am not a 'pink' sort of girl, but there's something about coming home to it that feels right.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Christina Maria Oswald Austria
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This picture shows my granny's legs (at 86 , wow!). I really like it because of the calm and somehow a bit mysterious atmosphere. Also the colors are very appealing to me, the spots of light...it resembles a painting in my opinion and furthermore I'm so fascinated by my granny (who I love a lot) and so happy that I'm finally allowed to take pictures of her. But this photo is even more special cause it's a very intimate moment to me.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Christopher Sharpe UK
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According to herself, my grandma used to be thin and happy. I never believed her as she was always fat, bitter and made everyone around her miserable. I never saw her eat, so she must have been fat because of all the hatred and guilt she kept inside. She used to secretly feed my grandfather valium with his breakfast in order to “keep him quiet.” We were forced to spend holidays with her but hated every minute, her voice and look heinous enough to spoil every chance of happiness — the best china and best behaviour never good enough to generate a smile. Occasionally, between the waves of fear and resentment, I would feel so sorry for her, tried to understand her and make her happy. But to no avail. She was a valuable lesson in how not to be. RIP.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Christopher Michael Little USA
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A drag racing legend.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Claire Sloan USA
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He is skinny and I have uneven collarbones. We are in love.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Cláudio Silvano Brazil
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There is a place near my town that I always go to when I need to disconnect from my routine. I always take a camera with me when I go there, to capture those little moments of peace. These photos represent an absence of problems and bad thoughts that always permeate my daily life in the city.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Craig Johnson Germany
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I found this photo about five years ago on the ground in my hometown in New Zealand. I suppose this could’ve easily been a lost passport photo, but since it looks like it was taken decades ago, I felt as though he was someone lost, and also loved. He reminds me of how I felt leaving home for the first time. I think there’s something quite beautiful about the idea of leaving the people who love you to be found by someone else. I’ve carried him with me ever since.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Cristina Santa Quiteria Spain
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I took this photo in a park outside of Moscow. In this park a lot of old people meet to dance and drink regularly. It's really curious!
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Dan Elstone Canada
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This one is one of my favorites. Not so much because of the subject matter, but more so because of the story behind the image. I took the image on a snowboarding trip to Mt. Baker in Washington State. Our RV broke down at the top of the mountain, leaving five of us stranded for three days on the mountain during heavy snowfall. We had no heat, some packs of ramen noodles, and beer. Trips are always more memorable when you can make the best of things that go wrong.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Daniel Hanselmann Chile
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This is my friend Juan. He has been my best friend since 8th grade and this picture was taken after he jumped in the pool and hit his head with another friend. Somehow the hibiscus makes perfect sense. It just reminds me of a good summer.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek Austria
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That's our New Year's Eve celebration in Tyrol, Austria. My wife will part when she sees the picture I took of her drunk and topless :)
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Daniel Augschöll Italy
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'Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were
behind you, like the winter that has just gone by.
For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter
that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive.Be forever dead in Eurydice-more gladly arise
into the seamless life proclaimed in your song.
Here, in the realm of decline, among momentary days,
be the crystal cup that shattered even as it rang.Be-and yet know the great void where all things begin,
the infinite source of your own most intense vibration,
so that, this once, you may give it your perfect assent.To all that is used-up, and to all the muffled and dumb
creatures in the world's full reserve, the unsayable sums,
joyfully add yourself, and cancel the count.'(Rilke)
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- David Roth Canada
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These are my grandmother and her husband on her birthday earlier this year. Sid is Ettie’s second husband. Her first husband, David (whose name I inherited), died before I was able to meet him. He seems to occupy a kind of invisible role in our family history. At her birthday, home videos of her first marriage were shown. This image feels like an accompaniment to the two of them watching that film. There is plenty of love between them, but I felt like the memory of David entered the room and lingered over the course of the night. This photo is the closest I’ve gotten to understanding that part of their marriage.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - David Paul Maharam Germany
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This is Darya, my love. She had been ill for a year and I was scared that she might die, but I wasn't able to talk about it. I tried to ignore how weak she had become, but on this very day I couldn't be quiet anymore. While we were talking, I took this picture and it has since become both a warning and cure for us. It has been a part of her healing process and I hope this picture will help her not to relapse.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Dawid Misiorny USA / Poland
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Destiny Mata USA
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Living in New York City, I've been homeless with my mom. I have lived in shelter homes and on benches. Having a crazy bipolar mom on top of that made my life even more intense.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Diego Ramone Brazil
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I'm actually trying to take less pictures and spend more time with this very special lady before she passes away. She has the soul of a ten year old child.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Dimitri Karakostas Canada
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I chose to submit this photo because I feel as though it can stand alone and be interesting and compelling to look at without any back story or additional photos. I would love to give you more information, but in all reality it's just a photo of my girlfriend and me, just living. I think that photos of just EXISTING are the most tangible... not digital-camera over-photoshopped 'perfection'.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Dwi Perkasa Indonesia
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That's me and my little sister.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Eleanor Hardwick UK
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I met Elena (left) online and we became best friends. She flew all the way from Colorado to stay with me in England last summer; this photo was taken in a photobooth on her last day.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Elena Ayllon Spain
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My cup of tea and his cup of coffee early in the morning.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Elisa Longhi Switzerland
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This summer I was suffering from severe depression and decided to go to Sicily alone. My spirit was dark, but I took a lot of good photographs on this trip. This is, in my opinion, one of them. It shows me that there’s a way out.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Elizaveta Porodina Germany
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Elliot Muir UK
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We needed some band photos and I wanted to do 'em myself but the Holga has no self timer, so I just shot us all overlapped on the same frame. Those are my feet. The studio is 'the sickroom' in Norfolk, very good place to record; Owen, the sound engineer, is ranked top five in the world at Super Mario Kart. He turns into Anakin Skywalker when he plays.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Emese Benko Austria
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The picture shows the view from my ex-husband's apartment. That marriage was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. But it made me the person who I am today. And that can only be a good thing. This is the reason why I love pictures and it's actually my favorite one: it reminds me that it is possible to get out of a vicious circle even if this means losing prettay much everything you own on a material level. Freedom is worth it.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Emilie Martin Canada
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This is of my mother, who has always been the sunshine in my life. She is a prime example of staying young at heart. She is by far the most positive role model in my life and had always a childlike wonder when it comes to the world. She lives everyday to the fullest and I'm so grateful to have her in my life.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Emma Knaflewska Poland
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Erin Hanson USA
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This was at a seedy hotel with water stains aplenty and peeling walls. I stayed here on my way to Japan and it did not bode well for the journey ahead. I like this photo though because it reminds that even in the face of ugliness and uncomfortableness you can often find something beautiful to focus on. Then things aren't so bad. Cheesy but true. And the trip turned out just fine.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Erin Jane Nelson USA
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I like it when someone physically bothers another person. This is always a poignant moment filled with both intimacy and social conditioning.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Evgeniy Antufev Russia
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My mother took these two pictures of me on Polaroid. I love my mother a lot and I photograph her very often, too. It's a very important moment when I hear the release, it creates a noticeable connection between me and my mother, it's like the umbilical cord of an embryo in the womb. The sound of the release, that's my favorite sound, there lies the true magic.
Unfortunately I live in another city now and I see her very infrequently, but I keep the Polaroids in a box and look at them very often.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Evgeny Lebedev Russia
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featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Fabian Weber Germany
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'What am I compared to the universe?'
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Felix Werbowy USA
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The guy is my boyfriend, Trent. We were trying to find a bird that somehow sneaked into his house and made a nest in the basement, of all places.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Florian Kaps Austria
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I am one of the founders of Impossible, the project that saved the last Polaroid production plant for integral instant film and started to invent and produce totally new instant film materials for traditional Polaroid cameras. After succeeding in creating a new monochrome film, we moved onwards to a new color integral instant film, probably one of the most complex photo systems imaginable.
It was a tough way towards color, with test film that did not show much color tones, but we never gave up. When I re-ceived one of the latest promising color instant film test packs, I pointed my Polaroid camera at my son Valentin — for the first real Impossible color image.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Franziska Ebert Germany
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Freya Priegnitz Germany
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Gábor Arion Kudász Hungary
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We don’t even remember when this happened exactly, but this bruise was probably the result of a collision my son Momo had with his little sister. The pain and self-pity on his face is so touching, so we started to look at this picture more and more often… we do prefer it over the “healthy” ones. Playing is a dangerous business and our hero is constantly in trouble.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Gemma McCracken UK
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The picture I have chosen is especially close to my heart as it was taken with and of my closest friends in my first year of living with them, and it was a great year.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Gena Morgese USA
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I love that objects or a scene worthless to some are priceless to others.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Giulio Ghirardi Italy
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This is the girl I love, even though she doesn't love me anymore.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Go Itami Japan
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I crowned my princess's Kayoko's head with the things available to us while cleaning out my old apartment in Tokyo. We have since gotten married, moved in together, and this summer, our daughter was born. To me, this is a family photo. I have been photographing her for about ten years already and will continue to do so.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Guy Batey UK
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This is part of 'The Melancholy of Objects', portraits of discarded objects I find on the streets of South East London.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Haiko Hebig Germany
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From the Monongahela Valley
To the Mesabi Iron Range
To the coal mines of Appalachia
The story's always the same
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now Sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name(Bruce Springsteen)
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Harald Roser Germany
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Harold Diaz USA
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Hasisi Park South Korea
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I went to my university town right after coming back from London. My sort of long term relationship had been finished by the time and I was trying to do a project called 'Perhaps, a Microcosm' which is based on the assumption that photography without a narrative is meaningless. So I went to the library, got naked and ran thinking that I could prove the stupid theory with this one image.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Hellen van Meene Netherlands
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This is Maggie. After I paid her a compliment she told me she was not used to getting any. She is a proud teenage mother of a little baby boy.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Holger Salach Switzerland
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Holly Fluxx Australia
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This is a tangle. These photos were taken at Gooey On The Inside parties; of B.A.A.D.D.D.('s lyrics), Toxic Lipstick (+ fog), Gameshow Girl + Talkshow Boy, and DJ Pandie('s legs). Toxic Lipstick change lives. Gooey On The Inside is the name of the noise/experimental hip hop/emerging visual+sound art parties that I curate with Kati Cubby.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Hui Li China
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My babies.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Ilaria di Emidio Italy
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This image belongs to an old set of films I found in my room that had not yet been developed. When I look at it, I suddenly fall into memories of an amazing period of my life, and I'm overwhelmed by feelings. I love it for what it represents to me.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Ilinca Diaconescu Romania
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This picture keeps alive pieces of a quiet magical past.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Ilya Smirnov Russia
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Iona Vorster Australia
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Irwin Barbé France
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- J. Alex Goss USA
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Jaci Kessler USA
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Projecting Hugh Grant's face onto my friend's created my ideal dry and vague image of a generic 'person' which I have been trying to draw for a long time.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Jamie Garden UK
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Basically, two friends and I were out in the West End of London when we were approached by two males dressed up in some 90s urban clothes. We ended up talking to them about New York's hip-hop scene etc. I asked if I can take some photos and they said they would say 'yes' in exchange for £1. The pictures came out really nice.
Afterwards I spoke to them about what they did on the streets and they said they were trying to break into the hip hop scene. One was a DJ and the other one a rapper. I wanted to do a full series about them, but I felt that they would be impossible to track down again. Hopefully, I will come across them another time.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Jan von Holleben Germany
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This picture was never exhibited or printed or shown in any way, but it is one of my overall favorite images. My godson Levin had just learned to crawl and was very excited about his new freedom. I wanted to somehow catch his excitement and make him fly in the sky like Peter Pan or a Roman Putto. In this picture I am holding him in the air myself, as my assistant wasn't tall and strong enough, and she took the image according to my sketches. We took the photo on a playground just outside my home, whilst on babysitting duty. Levin was giggling and gasping with laughter, he really enjoyed the flight. His dad, who is also my best friend, was shocked when he saw it - he thought I actually threw Levin so high in the air.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Jason Hynes UK
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Here is an image which I regard as my favourite at this moment, I say this moment because my favourites change all the time. I am in a romanticised mood at the moment, choices to make. For now, one thing I know is that this picture shows a place that made me happy.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Jeff Luker USA
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Jens Windolf Germany
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Jerry Hsu USA
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Will was my best friend growing up skateboarding. He was the first person I started taking pictures of when we were about thirteen. His weirdness has never left me.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Jia Zhu China
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featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Jim Mortram UK
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Jimmy was and is a local legend. Always in the center of town, his two Jack Russell dogs, Susie and Rosie, in the front basket. He'd hold audience with anyone that stopped to listen, rolling out tales in a thick Irish brogue. Always on my periphery, little by little our street talks blossomed into long conversations back at Jimmy's home. Tales of life in Ireland as a boy and young man, a father that absconded leaving 13 children, hard times. Tales of life in London during the 1960s, no blacks, no dogs, no Irish in pub windows. Hard times.
Now alone aside from his dogs, the last year has been one filled with cruelty and chaos for Jimmy. Last summer he was involved in a hit and run, leaving him crippled with arthritis after the wounds and breaks knitted and stitched together. A year ago he could have been 50; now he's feeling all of his 75 years, though his mind is still sharp enough to cut. Susie died leaving Rosie and Jimmy alone but together.
The local doctor's where Jimmy would get his wounds dressed was ultimately a place of mixed fortune for him. Though the visits there have been painful, he was approached by a family recognizing him as the owner of Jack Russells and they asked him to watch over a pair of Jacks for a few weeks. The family never returned to reclaim the dogs so they have become part of Jimmy's family and a part of the cycle of everyday that keeps him going.
Jimmy's hands, legs and shoulders are permanently in pain and it's taking longer to do everything, opening jars, bottles. And the walk to the local shop that would take five minutes now takes 40, but the Jacks are there by his side, there at 4 a.m. when he wakes from the aches within, there when people are not.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Joachim Robert France
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This is a friend of mine. She is very shy, I was never able to take her portrait without her hiding behind her hand. This one day, though, we were having drinks at the canal and as I grabbed my camera she surprised me with this beautiful expression on her face. She left for Australia two years ago and I haven't seen her since then, but this is still my favorite photograph.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Johan Strindberg Sweden
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Down by the Mekong river's edge in Laos, just located across the street from where a man is selling 'whiskey from hell', lies a run-down hotel. I only stayed for a while. In one of the rooms lived Joshua, an American soldier working in Afghanistan. He loved the war, spending his days fighting the Taliban. However by night he was haunted by terrible nightmares. He earned a lot of money doing what he did, spent some of it travelling, but most of it on prostitutes and liquor. Joshua was a broken man whose past was always present in his mind. He would never leave his room. He whiled away his days consuming his liquor, and his nights consuming his girls. A few months later I heard that Joshua was dead, he was killed in the war. That's about everything that i know of Joshua, the haunted man.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Johan Karlsson Sweden
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At the moment I only know that I miss her.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Jordan Tate Germany
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Jordan Marty USA
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This my friend Elliot in her living room, it was shot while I was living and attending college in Savannah, Georgia.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Jordan Sullivan USA
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This picture was taken on my last day in New York. The best friends I ever had brought me to Ithaca that weekend. I had lost so much in those last weeks, and all I could think to do was leave town. This photo was taken in a place that I can only describe as paradise. We hiked maybe a mile through this dense wilderness until we came to these cliffs. There must’ve been a hundred kids there; everything ran wild and innocent and you could even feel your blood flowing as reckless as the river. Some of the kids were jumping off the cliffs into the water, others were watching from the ledge of the dam below. My friend told me about a girl who fell off that 70 foot ledge and broke every bone in her body. This picture is of one of my best friends, Fraz, jumping off that very same cliff. When I look at this image, I think of joy and death.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Jörg Brüggemann Germany
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I was on my way back to Berlin with a friend of mine when we got into a full closure of the Autobahn. I climbed a bridge going over the road and took this picture. Full closures are absurd. Complete strangers gather in a place where cars usually pass by at 180km/h and just stand around.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Josefin Vilén Sweden
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I took this photo on my trip to Mongolia. It was one of the coldest winters and many horses died. These are the survivors.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Jukka Reverberi Italy
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I got a band called Giaridini Di Miro, but for the first summer in 10 years we weren't on tour. Lots of time. Little money. A nation to travel. This photo was taken during the last summer.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Julia Paul USA
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Jurate Gacionyte Lithuania
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Justin Visnesky USA
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I took this photo in the fall of 2008. It is from a larger, ongoing body of work exploring light and its power to evoke emotion.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Kaj Lehmann Switzerland
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I quit my job and lived in Berlin for a short while, because I wanted to spend time with a girl that fascinated me more than anybody I had ever known. The image is part of a series called 'Finding the center in Berlin'.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Kat de Mesa Philippines
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This is a photo of my boyfriend sitting on the floor of our very first apartment. I remember the place was empty and extremely hot but we stayed there the whole day anyway.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Katarina Sopcic Germany
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Katherine Squier USA
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This is of my brother Mark who has become a big muse of mine for the past few months. It combines three of my favorite things: hands, light, and wood. I love photos of hands because I think they say a lot about someone, and Mark is a rapidly-growing teenage boy. At first glance he no longer looks like a child, but here you can see that he still has a lot of growing to do. It reminds me of how close I am with my family, and all the growing we've done together.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Kathrin Klingner Netherlands
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I love all my polaroids, but this ones especially. I guess because I could never use it as part of my artwork. It is too beautiful, too romantic. I might have a slight problem with romantic stuff and find things that are twisted or a bit ironic a lot easier to deal with. I took this picture in Zuerich last summer. I didn't feel too great when I went there to see my friend Ale. But it's hard to feel like crap in such a beautiful place.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Katrin Kirojood Sweden
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When I moved from Vienna to Sweden I left not only a warm and loving home behind but also one of the most important persons in my life. The picture was taken in connection with a photo shooting, Markus taking a break from posing for me for a school project.
I miss having my creative, constantly smoking friend to share my ideas, dreams and work with.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Kimberley Sikyea USA
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A broom not only clears a surface, but sweeps the dust back into the wind to be carried to another surface, landing with a crackle of static communication. Maybe it says 'hello' ...or maybe it says 'I've been here. I wonder how long before I am gone'.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Ksenija Kucerova UK
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This photo is emotionally close to me as it reminds me of my home where I lived for 19 years. I shared it with my family that I miss very much because I am away. The photo tells me about our traditions that are so important to us and keep us together. I found myself in a new role to explore my family’s traditions and their daily lives which seem to be so different and distant.
The man in the photo is my dear grandfather, the only one left, to be honest. He always tells me about his life, his wartime stories and his experiences in the army. It is very sad because he has progressive cancer. I wish I could spend every day with him, but I am in the UK while he, and the rest of the family, lives in Lithuania.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Kurniadi Widodo Indonesia
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Lara Alegre Spain
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Last December, in Norway, we decided to go to the center of the Artic Circle. We took a night train for nine hours and we went out to a little village where only the man of the train station was living. We hitchhiked and were dropped off in the middle of nowhere. We could only see the road, white mountains, the center of the Artic Circle, reindeers, and ourselves. It was one of the best trips of my life.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Laurent Ripoll France
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These are my brother and my mother in my grandparents' room on Christmas Eve. I like it because my brother's expression reveals the highly charged atmosphere of this night.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Lena Dobrowolska Poland
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My favorite images are the ones I found or got given. My objects of sentimental value.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Liah Moss UK
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These are my birthday flowers from when I turned 18.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Lisa Wassmann Germany
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This is the ICC in Berlin. When I was little, my father used to work in this building. It always looked like a big spaceship to me.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Lucano Maldonado Mexico
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I was watching TV late at night, and there was this documentary about the Gran Sabana. They showed this sequence in slow motion: a native on a motorized bicycle and the guy of the show on another bike running at the same speed as a huge bull.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Maarten Boswijk Netherlands
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I used to wander around in Utrecht where I live. I found this house in a fenced-off area behind a church where there was just concrete on the ground, it had been like that for a while. I cycled past a few times but this was the first time something was there, I remember going back a few times and it had gotten bigger. I think it's the work of kids, who built it with the stuff they found on the site.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Maciej Tabola Denmark
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I went on a fishing trip with my cousin and a close friend. This was my first catch ever: a little baby perch, a lot of joy.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Mafalda Silva UK
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I took this picture on a visit to my boyfriend in Sweden. I miss him more than anything and I wish we wouldn't have a sea separating us.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Magdalena Fischer Austria
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Maks Klaat Ukraine
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I love how the red colour defect (it was overdue film) makes it look like some clouds or beer foam.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Marcel Kaczmarek Poland
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The happiest moment of my life.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Marcus Henry UK
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Maria Datsykova Russia
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These pictures were taken on my first trip to Israel. I remember sitting perched on a stone parapet overlooking a graveyard of abandoned ships for hours on end, taking pictures of the sun sinking in the sea. The Israeli love to watch the sun setting. They settle in a plastic chair and watch the sea till it gets dark. Then they fold the chairs up and head home.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Mark Regester USA
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I love this photo of my daughter taken at the St. Louis Zoo because it captures the exact moment the hippo swam up and surprised her, a very genuine moment that turned out vaguely surreal.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Marlies Plank Austria
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This picture came out of a film roll which I shot in Paris, but actually I don't remember shooting it. After some investigation I found out that it is probably a leftover from another trip. Anyhow, I still cannot remember why, where and when I made this shot. I am not even sure if it is me in the picture or somebody else.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Marlon Kowalski Germany
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featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Martin Petersen Germany
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The person on the photograph is my ex-girlfriend. We had the most intense relationship. First in the good and in the end in very frightened ways. As we broke up for the fourth and last time, she told me to delete all of her photos from my websites and hard drive, and so also from my memories. I did, except for this one, which for me, shows it all.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Martina Korosec Slovenia
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This photograph shows my grandmother-in-law. She was a dog's guardian. This was taken when I met her for the first and the last time.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Mateusz Duszenko Australia
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The fire was in Margaret river which is three hours south of Perth. I was driving past it and had to pull over and jump the fence for a couple shots. I thought the film was ruined as I opened up the back of my camera without winding it all the way, so I put it away and forgot about if for a couple of years. A friend of mine somehow got his hands on it and developed it thinking it was one of his and I'm very glad he did.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Matt Martin UK
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Matthew Harris Australia
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This is a picture I took at the circus when I was little, sometime in the early nineties.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Max Lipchitz USA
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These images are of my older brother, Benji. He has fragile X syndrome, which is similar to autism. Typically, he is not very photogenic, but I think he photographs very well, in a very natural and innocent way.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Maximilian Haidacher Austria
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Maya Rochat Switzerland
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This image gained in importance for me over time because it is one of those that show important people and moments in my life, they attract and irritate me at the same time, I love and hate them. I have to look at them over and over again as if there is something mysterious that is yet to be discovered.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Michael Ivnitsky Israel
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A pleasant memory of a very special morning.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Michael Barry UK
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Taken in my physics lesson, this is Tom. We chat about films and never pay attention to Mr. Azzopardi.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Miklos Boros Austria
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This photo of my son Noel is just one of hundreds of photographs that I am continuously taking of him. The picture is not even sharp but on this single photo I see more of his character than on all others. There are just a couple of images which have this kind of unexplainable power to me, and photos like this give me the answer as to why I am so fascinated with taking pictures.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Mohammedreza Mirzaei Iran
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This photo of my sister Pooneh is so much more memorable to me than the ones on which she looks more elegant. In fact, I am not sure about the difference between good images and bad ones, I don't know if you can generalize that. My favorite images are those that don't tell us everything about themselves.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Monika Mogi Japan
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This photo is special to me because I took it when I was 15 years old. It is of my then best friend Michelle in the middle of Shibuya crossing on a rainy day. Being young teens in Tokyo meant running around dressed up, drinking far more than we could handle, lying about our age and getting into clubs, dancing on the train, taking advantage of the politeness of Japanese people, and basically living like we owned the city. I realize looking back how much I wasn't afraid to embarrass myself and I feel as though I was more brave back then. Living the scandalous life of an underage girl. Many things have changed since then, we've grown apart, matured, and it is true that people and places do change within time.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Nadia Sablin USA
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My father was an amateur photographer in the 1980s, using a manual Zenit SLR and taking photographs in the village where we spent our summers. He would print the photographs in our small bedroom using an enlarger and expired chemistry that had been in the family for three generations. I remember the enlarger light woke me up one night. I was scared and turned on a lamp, destroying the work in progress.
When we moved to the United States, we were not allowed to take any media with us, like cassette tapes or film negatives. The excuse given for this restriction was that we could be smuggling sensitive information to sell them to foreign intelligence agencies. Twenty years later I got the film back from my aunt, who kept it in a cardboard box. I love my father’s lyrical way of seeing the world and the memories his photographs prompt me to invent. This one shows my grandfather reading his braille magazines.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Nadya Koroleva Russia
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This was in Greece. It's so nice to have a friend who can take good photos of you.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Naruemon Puriso Thailand
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This is me and my lovely friend Benz at her house in Bangkok, our home town. We decided to do some homemade fashion shots before she left for work in Singapore.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Neven Allgeier Germany
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My girlfriend Anna sent me this photo after we had kissed for the first time. It shows her when she was 14, almost ten years before we met. Her family has been spending their summer holidays in a small summer house, a dacha, nearby Moscow ever since they moved to Germany.
When Anna was 14, she wasn't supposed to leave the house after eleven, but snuck out to meet her friends in the forest anyway. She used to wait until everybody went to sleep and then climbed off the balcony with a small ladder. So when one time she came back drunk as fuck in the middle of the night, her father caught her on the veranda and took this picture.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Nico Krebs Germany
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Leaving Ramallah, Lucia and I stopped at the end of the dead sea, started walking and discovered a cave in mountains made of pure salt. A sign next to it read “Lot’s wife.” While entering the dark hole, I asked, “The price she paid for what? Curiosity?” — “For looking back! Never look back!” Lucia said behind me. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what I did.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Nicolai Howalt Denmark
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The work is from a project called N + T. Trine is going to breastfeed our daughter Sigrid and the milk runs out. The Project works as a diary and is based on our own lives in Copenhagen around the year 2000.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Nina Ahn South Korea
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My fiancé and his grandma. I'm a Korean girl and my fiancé is a 26 year old English boy. We met in Korea about two years ago, he worked as an English teacher at the time. I came to England to meet and understand his family and I'm having a great time here. This is the first picture I took of my new family — his grandma is so kind and charming, I love her. I really had to take her picture to remember her once I go back to Korea.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Nina Hartmann USA
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I took this of my boyfriend in a weird stage between us. I had just gotten back from travelling and we were spending time together for the first time in two months. I didn't want the picture to look all blurry and distorted like this, but I really like how it came out. It looks exactly the way his room makes me feel. It's one of my favorite pictures.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Noah Kalina USA
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This is a photograph I took of my girlfriend in Marfa, Texas. It was really hot outside.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Oliver van der Lugt New Zealand
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Olya Khebalina Russia
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Owen Ashworth USA
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This is my wife and our daughter on the day she was born.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Pablo Maestres Spain
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This picture is special to me because it marked the beginning of my stay in Barcelona, a very good time. This was an especially good night, a water festival in great company.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Pau Dalmases Spain / USA
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This summer I traveled to New York City to help my girlfriend settle down. She was going to live and study there for the next two years. Our love story ended there.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Paul Kwiatkowski USA
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featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Pedro Florentini Spain
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This is my friend nano4814. I started to take analog photos with a cheap, bad plastic camera and this was one of my first. It's funny because I wanted to make a portrait with his new bicycle... I noticed I put the finger so I took a second one now doing a perfect portrait. After seeing the paper copies I prefer this one.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Pendleton Ward USA
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This is a photograph of Kent Osborne, head writer on Adventure Time. It was taken two years ago on Kent's birthday. I found it when I was driving away from his house at the end of the night, I was changing lanes when I saw it taped to my rearview mirror. It scared me. I thought he was actually behind me for a moment, screaming and holding Tecate. I took it off my mirror and stuck it to the inside of my windshield where truck drivers tape photos of their children. Then, when the tape lost its stick, I put the photo in my wallet where normal people keep photos of their children.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Peter Hoffmann USA
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I live in Illinois, the suburbs of Chicago in the Midwestern U.S. I simultaneously love and hate this place but this photo is of my friends during a gathering that I feel is quintessentially 'Midwest'. These are people I care for and spend time with, and this picture not only reflects what the leisurely side of Midwestern living is, but it also describes how I feel about this part of the country. Mostly that it's absurd but sometimes beautiful.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Peter Franck Germany
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Peter Baker USA
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I recently spent my honeymoon in Iceland. This is one of my favorite photos from the two weeks spent wandering around an absolutely amazing country.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Peter D. Evan UK
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After receiving some of the worst news I've had in years, I drove out to the seaside with a few friends in an attempt to escape from my life for a little while. Although the day was grey and unremarkable, and we ended up at a particularly grim stretch of marshy coastline, the memory of these few hours of relief would stick with me as I faced the consequences of that terrible news.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Petr Boruta Czech Republic
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I was alone in the middle of nowhere (in one of Finnish Lapland's national parks), when I saw this, the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. I waited for the Satori, but it didn't come at the time. But I feel something when I recall the moment. Things are actually always better in memories and that's what I'm thinking about when I'm looking at this photo.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Phillipe Jusforques France
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I use photography to create my images but I've never really done a photographic series. I take photos when I don't work, most of the time in summer. In a way, all my photos are holiday pictures...
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Pirian Binding USA
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This photo was taken a month or so before we got robbed.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Poppy Carmel UK
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This is a picture of my two friends Charley and Danielle after one too many glasses of wine the night before we graduated. I love this photo because it captures such a pure emotion of happiness, friendship and excitement!
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Rachel Growden USA
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My father and sister as visitation for my grandfather came to an end.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Rachel Waugh Canada
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'Where are my scissors?' — 'Don't cut your beard with those. Normal people shave you know?' — 'I like to personalize my facial hair.'
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Raphael Villet USA
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This is my fraternal twin brother. It is special to me because it was the first time seeing my brother since our longest separation, five months. It was also the first time we ever decided to pose unanimously like this.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Rebecca Rijsdijk Netherlands
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This is one of my favorites because the people who are in it are my favorites.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Reilly Hodgson Canada
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I took a polaroid with that phrase (which is a quote from the Terminator movies) a few years ago. One day I went to my friend Dimitri's house and he tattooed it on his ankle. Real nice tribute I thought, so I snagged that photo. Now I've got the tattoo to match as well.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Rob Hunter South Africa
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featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Roberto Rubalcava UK
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I love Sweden. I love the purity of the air, I love the forests and I especially love the sauna parties.This photo was taken last year when I went to Sweden to shoot some pictures of my friend Amanda for a Swedish clothing brand. After staying at her lovely family house for a week, I was so relaxed that I completely lost track of time and forgot to take my plane back to London. The photo was taken on the Saturday of the traditional Crayfish party that is held every year. Håkan gave Amanda that dress before going into the sauna. There were about ten of us squeezed into that small, hot space, all of us pretty drunk. I loved the fact that when it got too hot, we cooled off by jumping into the freezing lake.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Roger Ballen South Africa
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This photograph was taken in a Park in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1968. I had recently obtained a Nikon FTN from my parents as a high school graduation present. My mother worked at Magnum and started one of the first photography galleries in the United States. In turn, I implicitly understood that a camera could be a tool to express one’s “inner being.”
At this time I was very interested in photographing older men and took this image of the two men fishing in the pond. I often have considered it to be my first image that had an aspect of myself in it.
That same day that I shot this image, I visited a van Gogh exhibition at a museum nearby. The show was an incredible revelation to me as it revealed to me that art could be a means to come into contact with deeper realities.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Roman Schauerte Germany
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Rudolph J. Razo Mexico
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This is the most wonderful woman in the world, my mother Angela.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Ryan Becker USA
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My mom was the principal of my high school in my senior year. However, for my family, my senior year was nowhere near normal. In October, we found out that my father had passed away of a heart attack and had been found on an area on campus where he used to check for trespassers. This shook our family to the core. Exactly eight weeks after we received the news of my father’s passing, my mom was diagnosed with Stage Four lung cancer. She had never smoked a day in her life or done anything to warrant this diagnosis. My winter break and subsequent months would be filled with cancer treatments and the constant fear of becoming an orphan with my older brother and sister. In March, however, after being treated with an experimental form of chemotherapy and changing her diet entirely, my mom was told by her doctor that the unthinkable had happened: her cancer was in remission!
The fight of my senior year led to this picture being taken. My dad traditionally walked my mom off-stage after the graduation ceremony, but since he had passed away, my mom would have to walk alone. After I walked down the aisle myself, I ran back around the gym and waited for the last of my class to walk in order to accompany my mom hand in hand down the aisle so she wouldn’t be alone. This picture tells the story of my family sticking together through thick and thin, and this is probably the most significant moment between my mom and I, who I love dearly, and a year later, is still in remission.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Ryan James Spencer France
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Winter light in Paris always scared the shit out of me. I couldn't figure if it was morning or afternoon half the time.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Sachi Nasatir USA
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Meet my first high school boyfriend! Now I only date girls.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Sandra Eichinger Slovakia
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This picture was taken in one afternoon when me and my boyfriend (who wasn't my boyfriend at that time) were planning a trip to Budapest.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Sarah Small USA
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I am fascinated — endlessly — by indeterminable interaction; cross generational, multi-emotional, elusive, investigative, explorable. This is a photograph of my mother and I. We were in my parent's bedroom in Washington D.C., my 10-year old sister, Rachel, took the photo, I had set it up. I don't understand the context and I love it because of this. This next picture is one I took last weekend — 18 years later — and somehow, these images reference each other. We all ask the same questions over and over. Life is peculiar, patterned, continuous...
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Savateev Kirill Russia
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featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Sena Cetin Turkey
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They are three sisters, the one in the middle is my grandmother, she is the oldest. The other two never got married and they live together. I took the picture during a family picnic on the outskirts of Istanbul, in autumn. The line is a jump rope in motion, my brother, my cousin and my stepsister were playing with it.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Simon Nunn UK
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This photo was the first actual idea I've photographed, I got the idea from a painting I saw on the internet. The whole night was awesome, I was round my girlfriend's house and we stayed up til the early hours of the morning and went into some fields near her house, it was wet and fun and was a real high point in our relationship.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Snorre Nygren Norway
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My friend and I met a Finnish man in a bar in Oslo. He said he had been in prison for twelve years and that when he was 17 he played in a certain legendary Finnish rock band. He invited us to his apartment and there we drank his moonshine.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Sofia Rojas France
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One of our last moments together before I decided to move to Paris alone.
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Sonia Mielnikiewicz Poland
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I got to know her better during that hot summer. The hottest summer we ever spent together. Strolling, cooking, dancing, riding bikes and regularly inhaling the city while lying on the grass by the river. The city's tissue belonged to us. But this girl's tissue was more like porcelain. We understood it just after that car accident. The bruise was all that she could remember. I made the photo of her pale skin. On that day we felt extremely free.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Sophia Moreno-Bunge USA
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This is Alexis. She is very inspiring and always creating, has a wonderful big big heart, and is full of light, and I love that this portrait captures that in a way.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Spencer Wohlrab USA
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The snowball fight of a lifetime, where people came out of their apartments and bars to join in. I lost my keys that night, but it didn't matter, because there was no way to get home anyway.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Spyros Simotas Greece
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This place is across the graveyard, where my friend Vanessa's grandmother is buried. She died last winter and I remember seeing her in her hospital death bed breathing heavily. Vanessa couldn't stop the tears roll down her face and walked out of the room. A few months later, we stopped at the graveyard to light a candle in her memory. The sun was setting over this place that had been devastated by the wild fires in August 2007.
featured in romka # 4, 2010
- Stefan Peters Germany
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When I thought about “real” summers last year, I always had this picture in mind, even though I haven’t looked at it for at least a decade. I took it 25 years ago on a year-long trip to my relatives in Brazil. Just some weeks after my arrival in São Paulo, my old Agfa camera dissolved in mold. I was too frustrated and poor to buy myself a new one, just to let it fall prey to the hot and humid climate or the street robbers.
After some months I found a kid’s box camera in Asunción which suited my needs just perfectly: It was made of blue sheet metal with red plastic straps, one aperture, one shutter speed, no worries. I took about 50 photos with this kid’s camera during that year. I remember being a bit disappointed when I saw the results in my closet-darkroom back home. Looking at them now, I think they reflect my vague but still loving feelings for that trip nicely. Somehow, I am particularly fond of this photo of a coconut picker, maybe because it’s so stereotypical.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Stefano Marchionini France
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This is my boyfriend Vivien with whom I share an apartment. We had already lived together in other cities and we are both starting a new life in Paris.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Stéphane Obadia France
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featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Stéphanie Jesus UK
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I was seeing this guy and ended up sleeping at his place. What was supposed to be a lovely evening turned out be the moment I found out he is one of the most selfish people I have ever met. Until then, I considered him one of my best friends. I left the house feeling horrible, disappointed and thinking, “There's no such thing as love. I'll die alone.”
That day I was taking the bus from London to Paris, which would mean ten hours of feeling sorry for myself. At one quick stop on the way I saw this couple all over each other; they just couldn't stay away and stop staring at each other for a second. It was magical. At a certain point, they laid down on the dirty grass and stayed there together, so in love. At that moment, I thought, maybe there is such a thing as love.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Steve Messer UK
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My girlfriend has a beautiful bellybutton, which is weird considering it's a scar.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Steven Chandler UK
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featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Sylvain Emmanuel France
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featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Tanja Bresan Croatia
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A dog called Malisha running crazy in the snow in Belgrade. I like the vague blur image because he is a really fast dog. A crazy, fast, shoe-eating dog that I like so very much!
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Tayla Roberge USA
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These two photographs were taken on the same day, but at different times. It was the first time I found a home, since I had run away three years ago. The blankets felt beautiful on my skin. Later that night it was raining and a friend and I went to the beach.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Tex Crick Australia
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We decided that we needed some firewood.
featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Thekla Ehling Germany
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Thomas Mailaender France
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featured in romka # 5, 2010
- Thomas Macker USA
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I want to capture 'the full consequence of this Pollyanna greasepaint pinkpoodle paradise.' (Hart Crane)
featured in romka # 2, 2009
- Trine Søndergaard Denmark
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Nicolai: The work is from a project called N + T. Trine is going to breastfeed our daughter Sigrid and the milk runs out. The Project works as a diary and is based on our own lives in Copenhagen around the year 2000.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Trisha Thompson-Adams USA
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This photo is of my husband and I while honeymooning through Europe. Our bus was heading into Rome and this was probably one of the more peaceful moments of our trip. We sat there in a hot bus, holding hands, and falling asleep on each other’s shoulders. I will always remember that.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Tyrone Williams UK
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This shot was for my girlfriend’s cousin’s memorial who passed away a few months back. In remembrance we set off a load of balloons. They had to be purple as this was her favourite color.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Victoria Baraga Argentina
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Nicolás and Mariel have a long distance relationship. They love each other but they can't be together because they live in different places. This picture is the result of one on their meetings. The ephemeral quality of it makes it look like a farewell and a first encounter at same time and I just love that photo.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Vincent Gillan UK
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My friend saying goodbye to her cat of 15 years just before she got put down.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Vinna Laudico Canada
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Her name is Gabby, she lived in a treehouse in Australia, I met her for a very short time, she let me take a picture of her in her car and then she disappeared in a blink. It was 5 years ago, but I keep on dreaming about her every night. I live in Montreal and went to Australia in a search of a new home.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Wolfgang Filser Germany
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This photograph shows my aunt and me as a baby. My aunt had a toothache, and the silver spoon on my shoulder was a gift she had brought me. I discovered this picture at my parents' place and digitalized it. I am struck by the absurdity of the arrangement of the objects, my aunt’s appearance and its fine composition (even if casual). The picture was taken by my dad on Kodak positive film in 1980.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7 - Xenia Dobonyi Hungary
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This was taken on one of my classmates' 18th birthday. I didn't want to go because there was this guy with whom I was involved back in the time and he was making out with his incredibly irritating girlfriend. Anyway, I went and it was okay. I will never go to his place again, though.
featured in romka # 3, 2009
- Xoan Garcia Huguet Paraguay
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This street is in Santa Rosa, a small neighborhood in Ascunción, Paraguay. It is very close to the big working class district Barrio Obrero and located between the city, the river and the garbage dump. Despite its central location, Santa Rosa feels like the countryside. It is a rather small neighborhood with many children and young people and a lot of favelas, but things have been getting better recently. There seems to be an urge to accomplish something, culturally and economically. I moved to Ascunción a few years ago and this city still never ceases to fascinate me.
featured in romka # 6, 2011
- Ye Rin Mok USA
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This photograph was taken at my friend Jessica Williams' home in Brooklyn, NY.
featured in romka # 1, 2008
- Zara Pfeifer Germany
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It's my mum leaving. It makes me cry everytime I look at it.
featured in romka # 7, 2012
→ buy # 7
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