Me and an ethnologist, Ivana Šusterová, have decided to make a fusion between photographic work and an ethnological study. For over four years, we have been researching the world of Romanian Roma women who professionally practice fortune telling and witchcraft. Before the revolutionary year 1989, their work was affected by the Communist regime which prohibited fortune telling and witching activities under the threat of imprisonment. In recent years, the popularity of their services is again on the upsurge and the topic is widely discussed, at home and
in the media. On the other hand their names are mentioned in police reports, they are charged with blackmail and with manipulating with their clients.

I try to record the consequences of modernisation, which has inherently transformed this profession, which in itself balances on the thin divide between mysticism and showmanship for the client who themselves seek them out on the basis of advertisement in the media or on social networks. In my photos you can only find demonstrations of the rituals because each of them was rather self-promotion of themselves than an authentic session with a client. The potential client could watch live broadcasting of the rituals on their Facebook profiles and could get a feeling of a real magic ritual. Instead of meeting in person, it is often sufficient to tell fortune through on-line chat to solve client’s problem. The old craft has been transformed into a business with great media strategies, inherited across generations. Nine year old girls are already starting their promotional “vrajitoare” profiles on the Facebook. Dolls are at one moment their toy, yet at any time they can be transformed into a magical artefact with the ability to regain a client’s lost love.