“A chance encounter in a fast food restaurant in Bucharest leads Ragna Arndt-Marić to a family that could be the Romanian branch of her family. The remaining days of her stay are characterized by the intensive exchange with the family of nine, which is captured photographically in “My Bucharest Family”.

“My Bucharest Family” is the result of a chance encounter in a fast food restaurant in Bucharest. In my search for feminist themes for my photographic work, I got into conversation with two young women. One of them, Bet, spontaneously invited me to photograph her large family, her parents and her six siblings. The remaining days of my short stay were characterized by an intensive exchange, which is captured photographically in “My Bucharest Family”.
In a way, it could be the extended Romanian branch of my Croatian-German family, the XL version, so to speak, with seven instead of five children and five instead of one dog in the house. Bet's mother in particular, who, like me, first worked as a doctor and also studied a second time (history instead of photography), is a kind of role model for me with her self-confident, unpretentious manner.
Consequently, the title “My Bucharest Family” was chosen as a tribute to this family, which fascinated me with its radical openness and loving interaction.

The series is an example of my working method as a photographer: I approach people I find interesting on the street or through my extended circle of acquaintances and photograph them in their private surroundings. I don't plan and construct my pictures in advance so that I can react as impartially as possible to the person I'm photographing. The images are created intuitively in a joint dialog and are spontaneously improvised and staged using personal clothing and objects.