Titus Simoens

Ciocanu is a small mountain village of about 40 families, situated in the heart of the Romanian Carpathians. It provides a magnificent view on Piatra Craiului, the most beautiful and, at the same time, most dangerous mountain range of Romania.
During winter, this region is very difficult to reach by car, so it took me a horse drawn sleigh ride to get there. The first few days were primarily a matter of getting used to the local winter weather conditions: snow up to one meter and temperatures as low as minus 15 degrees Celcius are not exceptional at all. My first introduction to life in the Romanian Carpathians resulted in these portraits of the local population.

A few days later I met the first family ever to settle in Ciocanu. Florin, the head of the family, was a lumberjack and a cross-country skiing champion in his former life, but now he is in retirement and mainly concerned with handling his cattle.