We are pleased to announce that Kristof Huf a student of Magnum photographer Nikos Economopoulos has joined us.
When a musician and restorer from a family of artists in search of an answer to the question: “How do you know if someone loves you?”, picks up a camera and goes to a Roma community to film a documentary project about the far from prosperous life in the centre of Europe, the result is a heartfelt story with poetic overtones, bordering on the Roma stories of Josef Koudelka and Lyalya Kuznetsova, but with its own unique visual language and narrative tone.
The Roma of Eastern Slovakia
Kristof’s first series on the NCU The Roma of Eastern Slovakia, is a long-term project describing the life of Roma communities in several European settlements founded back in the late 19 century. Over the decades, their populations have grown to become one of the largest and most problematic rural Romani settlements in the entire region. Despite their central European location, they resemble Third World slums characterized by unemployment, international exploitation, violence, drug abuse, and resignation. They are stuck in villages inhabited by ethnic Slovaks, who treat Roma with blatant racism, and are isolated from the surrounding society.
