Alex Gâlmeanu
Alexandru Pompiliu Gâlmeanu (born October 29, 1978) is a Romanian photographer and image director. He started working in 1998, and has primarily focused on editorial, advertising, fashion or abstract photography. Early life and education. Gâlmeanu was born on October 29, 1978, in Bucharest, Romania. At the age of 14, he started learning to photograph using the existing photographic equipment in his family's house, including a functional photo laboratory. A year later, in 1993, he published his first photograph, cover no. 3 of Salut magazine. From 1994 till 1997, he attended Colegiul Național Matei Basarab for his higher  education, and also worked for the magazine of the "Matei Basarab" National College. In 1997 he had his first collaborations with the Romanian magazine market, working on several occasions for a local independent magazine called 2000 Plus. In 1997, Gâlmeanu began his studies at the Faculty of Art of Hyperion University, Film Department, but he could not complete it. Subsequently, between 2009 and 2012, he completed his university studies at the University of Art Bucharest, specializing in Photography and Computer Image Processing. Career. Gâlmeanu began his professional photographic career in 1998. From 1999 to 2002, he worked as an employee  of the Ringier Press Trust, becoming the principal photographer for the Ringier Magazine Division. He opened his own photo studio and his own company in 2002. In 2010, he curated "Romania - 50 Years of Female History, an exhibition in which he gathered a selection of 50 images from various archives, female portraits, exhibited and organized by decades, as a celebration of Romanian femininity. The photographic series was exhibited in Constanța, Iași, Cluj and Timișoara. In the following year, he exhibited "Subjective Portraits" in Reykjavik, Iceland. Gâlmeanu has shot covers for Forbes NY, Reader’s Digest Holland, Esquire, Marie Claire, Elle , Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, InStyle, GQ, Men’s Health, FHM, Playboy, and Joy. Galmeanu has directed and produced music videos. He has also directed documentaries including "Story seekers", and "Artisan" which is a 5-episode documentary about artisans in Bucharest. During 2017-2020, he collaborated with the director Oana Giurgiu, as image director, for making the documentary film "Spioni De Ocazie", produced by Libra Flim. The film premiered at the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF), organized in Cluj in June 2021. Anastasia. In 2003, Gâlmeanu started the "Anastasia Project", a photo series in which Anastasia, a Romanian girl, comes to  the artist's studio every October to make a portrait. The project is ongoing, through which Gâlmeanu documents the physical and emotional transformations that Anastasia goes through in her journey from child to woman. People I Know Series. Gâlmeanu worked on a project named "People I Know", and held his first solo exhibition in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest in 2005. "People I Know" is a collection of portraits of Romanian personalities, including Ana Ularu, Oana Pellea, Vlad Ivanov, Johnny Răducanu, Cristian Chivu, Gyuri Pașcu and others. The "People I Know" series of images was later exhibited  in Paris (2008), and in Toulouse (2010), organized by ICR France.