Cosmopolis
© Chris MaluszynskiRomania is one of Europe’s poorest countries. While the majority of the lower income population lives in the countryside, it is in the northern outskirts of Bucharest where the better educated and generally better off Romanians are found. Engineers, lawyers, business people and doctors. Many of them working for big multinational companies.
Since the fall of communism many gated communities have been built in the north of Bucharest, and become a kind of micro utopias separated from the outside by fences and guards.
Cosmopolis, located some 15km north of the city center, is not the richest of these communities, but the biggest of them. It currently houses around 3500 people in 2000 units (apartment blocks, two-family homes and one family villas). The entire project is for 10 000 units if it is ever fully built.
This body of work is my contribution to a documentary/art project on the theme of "Bucharest Microtopias" that was made possible by an artist residence program organised by the city of Bucharest, where five Nordic photographers were invited to participate. Each photographer chose a particular area or community of the city to document.
I chose to explore the gated habitats of the better-off Romanians, and found myself in Cosmopolis.
-Chris Maluszynski 2015
click to view the complete set of images in the archive
InstituteTM (collectively Institute Pictures, Institute Studios, & Institute Artist) is redefining how stories are produced and told in the 21st Century. Founded by Producer Frank Evers and Director/Visual Artist Lauren Greenfield, we are a multiplatform production company representing auteur-driven storytellers across commercials, photography, fine art, film, and technology — and producing original work across every screen that those stories live on. Our multiplatform expertise and established global relationships in entertainment, commercial, fine art, and journalism create unmatched reach and cross-pollination of creative work. A film commission informs a photography campaign; a fine art practice shapes a commercial; an editorial relationship opens a documentary. Few companies operate fluently across all of these worlds. Institute was built this way from the ground up.
Clients include: Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft/Xbox, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, Under Armour, Dove, Maybelline, Clinique, Ulta Beauty, Aesop, Vaseline, LEGO, Balenciaga, Dior, Tom Ford, Kenzo, Supreme, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Toyota, McLaren, Pennzoil, American Express, Chase, U.S. Bank, Burger King, Chobani, Corona, Pepsi, Nespresso, Lavazza, Velveeta, Airbnb, Four Seasons, Marriott, Instacart, eBay, JCPenney, Levi's, Swatch, Bang & Olufsen, Bayer, Pfizer, Genentech, EA, Planned Parenthood, Ad Council, and the United Nations. Editorial and publishing partners include: The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, TIME, Bloomberg, National Geographic, The Economist, Monocle, Le Monde, Stern, Sunday Times Magazine, Phaidon, Steidl, Abrams, Prestel, Chronicle, and Random House.
“Institute” is a registered trademark in the US, Europe, and United Kingdom. All rights reserved.