Moţ cu căruţa în Bucureşti
A "Moţ" and His Cart in Bucharest
The Moţi (inhabitants of the Apuseni mountains) were
coming to Bucharest for trading purposes. A photo
taken by Ionescu in Piata Mare (the grand market
place) shows the type of trade they were practicing:
household items, usually made out of wood, which
actually relate to a kind of craftsmanship trade. To
come to Bucharest, they would use their carts as
transportation means. No wonder that the horses, as
transport animals, represented an essential element
of their life.
The image is unusual if we compare it to the whole
work of Ionescu, since he uses the American set, in
an image where there is a purposed framing of the
central element. The natural follow up, as far as
the human element is concerned, is the elimination
of certain body parts.
The photo displays two stable spaces: the compact
man-horse group, in the foreground, occupying the
largest part of the visible space, in a frontal view
(the group looks as if stoned, and the Moţ cannot
escape such state, even if he is aware he is being
photographed. The clue – he is smiling) and the
façade of a building in the background, that
completely closes the visibility area.
There is a vacant space in between these two areas,
where we can guess the movement on the diagonal of
two men, who have started their walk from the right
side of the image and who are heading to the group
in the foreground. The image is thus relying on the
opposition between the static and the mobile.
