Laura Balc Photography | Portrait & Lifestyle Photographer in Transylvania

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I’M LAURA

THE EYE BEHIND THE CAMERA

I’m a self taught portrait and lifestyle photographer with an editorial approach, based in Transylvania, Romania My work is an expression of what I am most passionate about: storytelling, simplicity and human interaction. I see beauty in everything, everyone. Photography helps me capture the uniqueness of my subjects, to show them how beautiful they really are. From the soul, for the soul and about the soul.

• I read something that said, if you do not love yourself, you will keep chasing people who do not love you either.

Wow.

And the reason that is, is because you chasing validation feels familiar. You will call it chemistry. You will call it connection. When really, it is your self worth asking to be seen.
When you do not value yourself, you start negotiating for attention. You accept inconsistency, confusion, mixed signals, and tell yourself, it is just complicated.
And it is not complicated. It is misaligned.
You stay where effort is one sided. Where affection has conditions. Where love feels like something you have to earn.
And you keep trying harder, thinking if you just show up a little bit more, explain yourself better, prove your heart, they will finally choose you.
But the part that hurts the most is this:
People do not rise to the level of your effort. They settle at the level of your standards.
When you do not choose yourself, you teach others they do not have to either.
Self love is not loud. It is quiet decisions.
It is walking away when your needs keep getting ignored.
It is not chasing what does not choose you back.
And the moment you start loving yourself for real, you stop chasing people who cannot meet you.
Because you finally realize, you do not need to convince anyone to treat you well.
You just need to believe that you deserve it.

• September 2025 • self portrait •

•

• I read something that said, if you do not love yourself, you will keep chasing people who do not love you either.

Wow.

And the reason that is, is because you chasing validation feels familiar. You will call it chemistry. You will call it connection. When really, it is your self worth asking to be seen.
When you do not value yourself, you start negotiating for attention. You accept inconsistency, confusion, mixed signals, and tell yourself, it is just complicated.
And it is not complicated. It is misaligned.
You stay where effort is one sided. Where affection has conditions. Where love feels like something you have to earn.
And you keep trying harder, thinking if you just show up a little bit more, explain yourself better, prove your heart, they will finally choose you.
But the part that hurts the most is this:
People do not rise to the level of your effort. They settle at the level of your standards.
When you do not choose yourself, you teach others they do not have to either.
Self love is not loud. It is quiet decisions.
It is walking away when your needs keep getting ignored.
It is not chasing what does not choose you back.
And the moment you start loving yourself for real, you stop chasing people who cannot meet you.
Because you finally realize, you do not need to convince anyone to treat you well.
You just need to believe that you deserve it.

• September 2025 • self portrait •

•

. Confessions to the moon

Intimacy
is not uncovering a body

but stripping a heart
of its fears

and making it feel
safe.

September 2025 • self portrait

•

. Confessions to the moon

Intimacy
is not uncovering a body

but stripping a heart
of its fears

and making it feel
safe.

September 2025 • self portrait

•

. The vibration of being who you are and doing what you love is magnetic. You will align everything you need in your life with that energy.

September 2025 • self portrait

•

. The vibration of being who you are and doing what you love is magnetic. You will align everything you need in your life with that energy.

September 2025 • self portrait

•

. The decision is mine
So let the lesson be mine
Cause the vision is mine.

Anamaria • 2024 • Cluj

. The decision is mine
So let the lesson be mine
Cause the vision is mine.

Anamaria • 2024 • Cluj

. We often come to love carrying a quiet hope.
That someone will finally make it stop hurting.
That being chosen, seen, or held will undo what was never healed.

But real love doesn’t arrive as a remedy.
It arrives as a mirror.

It shows you where you still brace.
Where you still protect.
Where you still ask to be saved instead of choosing to stand.

Real love will touch your tenderness and your defenses at the same time.
It will feel safe enough to reveal what you’ve hidden,
and challenging enough to ask you to grow beyond it.

This is why love can feel destabilizing.
Not because it’s wrong,
but because it refuses to collude with your old strategies.

Love is not here to dissolve your wounds for you.
It’s here to walk beside you while you learn to hold yourself.
To invite the adult in you to take responsibility for what the child could not.

If love never challenges you, it keeps you small.
If it only soothes you, it keeps you dependent.
But when it confronts you with care,
it becomes the place where healing actually begins.

Not because someone fixed you.
But because you finally rose to meet yourself.

Alex & Tom • 2024 • Cluj

. We often come to love carrying a quiet hope.
That someone will finally make it stop hurting.
That being chosen, seen, or held will undo what was never healed.

But real love doesn’t arrive as a remedy.
It arrives as a mirror.

It shows you where you still brace.
Where you still protect.
Where you still ask to be saved instead of choosing to stand.

Real love will touch your tenderness and your defenses at the same time.
It will feel safe enough to reveal what you’ve hidden,
and challenging enough to ask you to grow beyond it.

This is why love can feel destabilizing.
Not because it’s wrong,
but because it refuses to collude with your old strategies.

Love is not here to dissolve your wounds for you.
It’s here to walk beside you while you learn to hold yourself.
To invite the adult in you to take responsibility for what the child could not.

If love never challenges you, it keeps you small.
If it only soothes you, it keeps you dependent.
But when it confronts you with care,
it becomes the place where healing actually begins.

Not because someone fixed you.
But because you finally rose to meet yourself.

Alex & Tom • 2024 • Cluj

Let's GO!!

TalaLulaBolunDuLa #dog #happiness #show #joy

Let's GO!!

TalaLulaBolunDuLa #dog #happiness #show #joy

This year was not easy for me.
It was quiet in ways I did not choose, heavy in places I did not expect, and long in the way only certain years are.... or maybe I just blinked three times and it's December again.... I learned how to keep going without applause, to hold myself when no one else could, to stay present even when joy felt distant and life heavy.

Christmas came anyway. Not to fix anything, not to wrap it in lights, but to remind me that I am still here, still breathing, feeling, still capable of warmth and OH so grateful for everything I still have.

If this year felt similar for you, pause for a moment and notice what stayed.
Merry Christmas!

This year was not easy for me.
It was quiet in ways I did not choose, heavy in places I did not expect, and long in the way only certain years are.... or maybe I just blinked three times and it's December again.... I learned how to keep going without applause, to hold myself when no one else could, to stay present even when joy felt distant and life heavy.

Christmas came anyway. Not to fix anything, not to wrap it in lights, but to remind me that I am still here, still breathing, feeling, still capable of warmth and OH so grateful for everything I still have.

If this year felt similar for you, pause for a moment and notice what stayed.
Merry Christmas!

. Most people aren’t in love.
They’re in a pattern.

We don’t attract love—we recreate what we knew.
We chase what feels like home,
even if home was full of longing, silence, or fear.
And we keep calling it chemistry.

But love is not supposed to hurt in familiar ways.
It’s supposed to free you from what once hurt.

This is the brutal truth:
You're not just choosing them.
You're choosing the version of you that never got to heal.

Want something different?
Don’t just find a new person.
Find a new pattern.

These are not personal opinions, they’re grounded in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, and lived human experience.
If they make you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is the threshold of transformation. This series is for those ready to stop lying to themselves.

#brutaltruths #love

. Most people aren’t in love.
They’re in a pattern.

We don’t attract love—we recreate what we knew.
We chase what feels like home,
even if home was full of longing, silence, or fear.
And we keep calling it chemistry.

But love is not supposed to hurt in familiar ways.
It’s supposed to free you from what once hurt.

This is the brutal truth:
You're not just choosing them.
You're choosing the version of you that never got to heal.

Want something different?
Don’t just find a new person.
Find a new pattern.

These are not personal opinions, they’re grounded in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, and lived human experience.
If they make you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is the threshold of transformation. This series is for those ready to stop lying to themselves.

#brutaltruths #love

. This moment didn’t show up overnight.
It came from all the small choices they made side by side,
from the way they stayed close instead of drifting apart,
from the trust they built slowly, with real effort.
They learned how to hold each other through life, honestly and with heart, and now life brings something deeply real to them, something new that wants to grow in the love they’ve kept alive together.
❤️ Proud auntie to be!

Ale & Vanea • 2025 • Cluj

. This moment didn’t show up overnight.
It came from all the small choices they made side by side,
from the way they stayed close instead of drifting apart,
from the trust they built slowly, with real effort.
They learned how to hold each other through life, honestly and with heart, and now life brings something deeply real to them, something new that wants to grow in the love they’ve kept alive together.
❤️ Proud auntie to be!

Ale & Vanea • 2025 • Cluj

. You can be in a relationship, married, desired, and still feel alone.
Because loneliness doesn’t always come from the outside.
Sometimes, it’s a mirror of your own disconnection.

Until you bring home the parts of you you’ve exiled,
no one else’s presence will feel like enough.
And what you mistake as needing more love
might actually be a call to meet yourself more fully.

Love doesn’t cure loneliness.
Integration does

These are not personal opinions, they’re grounded in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, and lived human experience.
If they make you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is the threshold of transformation. This series is for those ready to stop lying to themselves.

#brutaltruths #love

. You can be in a relationship, married, desired, and still feel alone.
Because loneliness doesn’t always come from the outside.
Sometimes, it’s a mirror of your own disconnection.

Until you bring home the parts of you you’ve exiled,
no one else’s presence will feel like enough.
And what you mistake as needing more love
might actually be a call to meet yourself more fully.

Love doesn’t cure loneliness.
Integration does

These are not personal opinions, they’re grounded in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, and lived human experience.
If they make you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is the threshold of transformation. This series is for those ready to stop lying to themselves.

#brutaltruths #love

. Beginning again

I am proud of myself again. And I want to revive my name and my work, because I know I have something important to give, something real. I am not doing this for fame or applause or numbers. I am doing it for me. I am doing it because I know what I carry inside, and I do not want to keep it quiet anymore.

What hurts the most right now is knowing how much potential I have put on hold inside me. I know what I am capable of. I know the depth I have. I know how good I am at what I do. And I kept that quiet for too long. I had other priorities. I needed to work on myself. I needed to heal. I am not ashamed of that. But I do not want to let it go to waste. I do not want to say I am not ready anymore. I do not want to say maybe tomorrow. I want to do it now, even if it is hard, even if I do not know how to do it yet, even if I feel that choke in my throat and tears in my eyes when I say this.

I maybe lost the powerful belief I had in my art along the way. I put it aside. I muted it. I placed it second for far too long. I never stopped being good. I never stopped helping women see themselves. I never stopped creating transformation. I kinda paused my voice, and I forgot that my gift mattered and that it made a difference. And I want that belief back. I miss the fire. I want to feel it again. And I know it will return if I show up and act.

The real cost, if nothing changes, would be abandoning the part of me that knows what she is capable of. And I will not do that. I want to place my art first again, because I placed myself and my healing first for a while. Healing will always matter, but it no longer needs to be the only priority. I want to begin giving my gift to the world again. I need that.

Because what's really about is believing that my gift is my purpose in this life , and it deserves to be given. I have seen how my art changes women’s lives. I need to believe that fully again, so that I can give it fully. And I will do whatever it takes to put it out there for everyone who needs it.

The truth is simple. I am very good at what I do. And now I choose to let it be seen.
It deserves to live.
I deserve to live fully in it.

Day 1

. Beginning again

I am proud of myself again. And I want to revive my name and my work, because I know I have something important to give, something real. I am not doing this for fame or applause or numbers. I am doing it for me. I am doing it because I know what I carry inside, and I do not want to keep it quiet anymore.

What hurts the most right now is knowing how much potential I have put on hold inside me. I know what I am capable of. I know the depth I have. I know how good I am at what I do. And I kept that quiet for too long. I had other priorities. I needed to work on myself. I needed to heal. I am not ashamed of that. But I do not want to let it go to waste. I do not want to say I am not ready anymore. I do not want to say maybe tomorrow. I want to do it now, even if it is hard, even if I do not know how to do it yet, even if I feel that choke in my throat and tears in my eyes when I say this.

I maybe lost the powerful belief I had in my art along the way. I put it aside. I muted it. I placed it second for far too long. I never stopped being good. I never stopped helping women see themselves. I never stopped creating transformation. I kinda paused my voice, and I forgot that my gift mattered and that it made a difference. And I want that belief back. I miss the fire. I want to feel it again. And I know it will return if I show up and act.

The real cost, if nothing changes, would be abandoning the part of me that knows what she is capable of. And I will not do that. I want to place my art first again, because I placed myself and my healing first for a while. Healing will always matter, but it no longer needs to be the only priority. I want to begin giving my gift to the world again. I need that.

Because what's really about is believing that my gift is my purpose in this life , and it deserves to be given. I have seen how my art changes women’s lives. I need to believe that fully again, so that I can give it fully. And I will do whatever it takes to put it out there for everyone who needs it.

The truth is simple. I am very good at what I do. And now I choose to let it be seen.
It deserves to live.
I deserve to live fully in it.

Day 1

. The most magnetic thing about presence
is that it doesn’t chase attention.
It draws it, without effort,
like gravity wrapped in silk.

•Cosmina Sandor • 2025 • Cluj
•Hair by Codruta Dabican

. The most magnetic thing about presence
is that it doesn’t chase attention.
It draws it, without effort,
like gravity wrapped in silk.

•Cosmina Sandor • 2025 • Cluj
•Hair by Codruta Dabican

. The fantasy of "the one" is seductive because it makes love feel effortless. But it’s also dangerous. Because it keeps you chasing a feeling, instead of becoming someone who can build something real.
Real love asks for choice. Growth. Presence. It’s not about finding someone flawless. It’s about becoming someone who can meet love without illusions.

This truth is hard to swallow. It puts the responsibility back in your hands.
It also gives you power. You don’t have to wait to be chosen. You can choose. And choose again.

These are not personal opinions, they’re grounded in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, and lived human experience.
If they make you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is the threshold of transformation. This series is for those ready to stop lying to themselves.

#brutaltruths #love

. The fantasy of "the one" is seductive because it makes love feel effortless. But it’s also dangerous. Because it keeps you chasing a feeling, instead of becoming someone who can build something real.
Real love asks for choice. Growth. Presence. It’s not about finding someone flawless. It’s about becoming someone who can meet love without illusions.

This truth is hard to swallow. It puts the responsibility back in your hands.
It also gives you power. You don’t have to wait to be chosen. You can choose. And choose again.

These are not personal opinions, they’re grounded in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, and lived human experience.
If they make you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is the threshold of transformation. This series is for those ready to stop lying to themselves.

#brutaltruths #love

The words that stick with you even when love is gone

"Ai putea fi o femeie frumoasă dacă ai vrea!"
"Sunt aici să rămân. (el ieșind pe ușă)"
"Nu te atașa că nu ești fișier. "

SAVAGE/LOVE

28 octombrie de la 20:00 @centruldecreatiemaidan

Cu superbi: @regina.tristetii @_dariasandu bogdan_stefan01 @adrian_manole

The words that stick with you even when love is gone

"Ai putea fi o femeie frumoasă dacă ai vrea!"
"Sunt aici să rămân. (el ieșind pe ușă)"
"Nu te atașa că nu ești fișier. "

SAVAGE/LOVE

28 octombrie de la 20:00 @centruldecreatiemaidan

Cu superbi: @regina.tristetii @_dariasandu bogdan_stefan01 @adrian_manole

She is!

She is!

••• Between laughter and silence, power takes shape.
Not in the roles we play, but in the truth we allow ourselves to live.
Because every season of a woman carries its own kind of beauty, the one that no longer asks for permission.
The kind that comes from knowing who you are, and daring to stay.

Dumitrita came for a business photoshoot, but left with something deeper, a portrait of herself, seen through softness, strength, and truth.

Every woman deserves to see herself like this.
To witness her own light, unposed, unfiltered, enough.

••• I invite you to my studio to experience what a portrait can become
when it’s not about how you look, but how you feel.

Warning: you might fall in love with your own magic
I’ll be there, camera in hand, to show you what’s been waiting beneath your skin.

•Dumitrita • Cluj • 2025 •

••• Between laughter and silence, power takes shape.
Not in the roles we play, but in the truth we allow ourselves to live.
Because every season of a woman carries its own kind of beauty, the one that no longer asks for permission.
The kind that comes from knowing who you are, and daring to stay.

Dumitrita came for a business photoshoot, but left with something deeper, a portrait of herself, seen through softness, strength, and truth.

Every woman deserves to see herself like this.
To witness her own light, unposed, unfiltered, enough.

••• I invite you to my studio to experience what a portrait can become
when it’s not about how you look, but how you feel.

Warning: you might fall in love with your own magic
I’ll be there, camera in hand, to show you what’s been waiting beneath your skin.

•Dumitrita • Cluj • 2025 •

. We say we want depth, but we keep choosing convenience.
We’ve turned intimacy into a vending machine.
Push a button, get affection, skip the effort.
But real love doesn’t grow in ease.
It grows in what you choose when it’s no longer convenient.

Do you stay when the shine fades?
Do you listen when it’s hard to hear?
Do you love when it’s not about you?

We keep asking for soulmate love,
but living like it’s a subscription we can cancel when bored.

This post isn’t about shame.
It’s about waking up.
Because one day, convenience won’t be enough for you.
And when that day comes,
you’ll realize love was never meant to be easy.
It was meant to be TRUE

#BrutalTruths #ModernLove #RealTalk #DepthOverComfort

Alexandra• 2020• Cluj

. We say we want depth, but we keep choosing convenience.
We’ve turned intimacy into a vending machine.
Push a button, get affection, skip the effort.
But real love doesn’t grow in ease.
It grows in what you choose when it’s no longer convenient.

Do you stay when the shine fades?
Do you listen when it’s hard to hear?
Do you love when it’s not about you?

We keep asking for soulmate love,
but living like it’s a subscription we can cancel when bored.

This post isn’t about shame.
It’s about waking up.
Because one day, convenience won’t be enough for you.
And when that day comes,
you’ll realize love was never meant to be easy.
It was meant to be TRUE

#BrutalTruths #ModernLove #RealTalk #DepthOverComfort

Alexandra• 2020• Cluj

. If I Enter - I Enter Fully

I do not touch halfway.
I do not breathe halfway.
I do not love halfway.
If I enter, I enter fully.
Not as a visitor.
Not as a maybe.
But as the one who knows:
This is a temple I choose to walk into, barefoot, honest, unhidden.
I come with my hands open,
my body awake,
my spine remembering every vow I’ve made to my own becoming.
I am the one who stays until the flame finishes its story.
I am the one who lets the sea kiss every edge of me, not just my feet, not just my surface.
If it is yes, it is yes with my blood, my skin, my breath, my name.
If it is no, it is a holy no, spoken before the door is crossed.
But when I enter, I do not leave parts of me outside.
I am not a guest here.
I am the whole storm, the whole softness, the whole truth, laid at your feet.

2022 • Cluj• 📷 @thelu.mag ⚡ @access_grantedd

. If I Enter - I Enter Fully

I do not touch halfway.
I do not breathe halfway.
I do not love halfway.
If I enter, I enter fully.
Not as a visitor.
Not as a maybe.
But as the one who knows:
This is a temple I choose to walk into, barefoot, honest, unhidden.
I come with my hands open,
my body awake,
my spine remembering every vow I’ve made to my own becoming.
I am the one who stays until the flame finishes its story.
I am the one who lets the sea kiss every edge of me, not just my feet, not just my surface.
If it is yes, it is yes with my blood, my skin, my breath, my name.
If it is no, it is a holy no, spoken before the door is crossed.
But when I enter, I do not leave parts of me outside.
I am not a guest here.
I am the whole storm, the whole softness, the whole truth, laid at your feet.

2022 • Cluj• 📷 @thelu.mag ⚡ @access_grantedd

. The self that lingers, the self that fades. Both are mine.

To claim all versions is the work of becoming whole.
Because identity is not a single image, but a constellation of what remains and what dissolves.
And in that tension, we find myself entire, complex, alive.

We are never one version, but a shifting archive of moments, truths, and echoes.
And maybe the answer isn’t to choose, but to carry both, the clarity and the blur, as parts of who we are.

. The self that lingers, the self that fades. Both are mine.

To claim all versions is the work of becoming whole.
Because identity is not a single image, but a constellation of what remains and what dissolves.
And in that tension, we find myself entire, complex, alive.

We are never one version, but a shifting archive of moments, truths, and echoes.
And maybe the answer isn’t to choose, but to carry both, the clarity and the blur, as parts of who we are.

. You don’t attract what you want.
You attract what you are, especially what you haven’t yet made conscious.

That’s not punishment.
It’s a mirror.

Your relationships reflect your level of emotional integration, not your vision board.

You might dream of deep love, healthy intimacy, soul-level connection…
But if you’re still driven by fear, shame, avoidance, or fantasy,
You’ll keep choosing people who match those patterns.

Jung said it best:
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life, and you will call it fate.”

This isn’t about blame.
It’s about ownership.

You don’t get the love you imagine you deserve.
You get the love your nervous system is wired to accept.

Want something different?
Grow your awareness.
Then watch your patterns change.

. You don’t attract what you want.
You attract what you are, especially what you haven’t yet made conscious.

That’s not punishment.
It’s a mirror.

Your relationships reflect your level of emotional integration, not your vision board.

You might dream of deep love, healthy intimacy, soul-level connection…
But if you’re still driven by fear, shame, avoidance, or fantasy,
You’ll keep choosing people who match those patterns.

Jung said it best:
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life, and you will call it fate.”

This isn’t about blame.
It’s about ownership.

You don’t get the love you imagine you deserve.
You get the love your nervous system is wired to accept.

Want something different?
Grow your awareness.
Then watch your patterns change.

. When joy becomes your statement piece,
strength doesn’t have to be loud.
It shows in the way you enter a room,
in the light you carry without forcing it,
in the smile that speaks louder than words.
Real power is not in performance,
it is in presence,
and presence begins with joy.

Sigina • 2024 • Cluj

. When joy becomes your statement piece,
strength doesn’t have to be loud.
It shows in the way you enter a room,
in the light you carry without forcing it,
in the smile that speaks louder than words.
Real power is not in performance,
it is in presence,
and presence begins with joy.

Sigina • 2024 • Cluj

. Romantic love was never meant to last forever.
Not the way we imagine it.

The chemistry, the thrill, the merging, that’s just the mirror phase.
You're not falling in love with them.
You're falling in love with your projection of them.

Eventually, that projection fades.
And you’re left with a choice:
Grow beyond the fantasy, or chase it again with someone new.

This isn’t cynical.
It’s psychologically true.

The death of infatuation isn’t the end of love.
It’s the beginning of the kind of love that’s rooted in truth, not illusion.

If that challenges your idea of romance, good.
Real love begins where fairytales end.

Alexandra • Cluj•

. Romantic love was never meant to last forever.
Not the way we imagine it.

The chemistry, the thrill, the merging, that’s just the mirror phase.
You're not falling in love with them.
You're falling in love with your projection of them.

Eventually, that projection fades.
And you’re left with a choice:
Grow beyond the fantasy, or chase it again with someone new.

This isn’t cynical.
It’s psychologically true.

The death of infatuation isn’t the end of love.
It’s the beginning of the kind of love that’s rooted in truth, not illusion.

If that challenges your idea of romance, good.
Real love begins where fairytales end.

Alexandra • Cluj•

. When seeking love,
Do not fullstop
Before the faithful mirror.

For it is trap for those unloved
Yet one’s a must for the believer.

Take one step more
When seeking love

For it is the faithless
Whom you shall honestly fulfill
And one shall make you fearless.

Peom by Cristina

Cristina • 2023•

. When seeking love,
Do not fullstop
Before the faithful mirror.

For it is trap for those unloved
Yet one’s a must for the believer.

Take one step more
When seeking love

For it is the faithless
Whom you shall honestly fulfill
And one shall make you fearless.

Peom by Cristina

Cristina • 2023•

. she keeps the marks of kisses and wounds
on her body like poets keep poems
in their notebooks.

📷 @flaviutanase • 2023• Cluj

. she keeps the marks of kisses and wounds
on her body like poets keep poems
in their notebooks.

📷 @flaviutanase • 2023• Cluj

.
We don’t rise to meet love.
We shrink to match our self-worth.

This truth isn’t about blame.
It’s about awareness, because until you understand how your nervous system learned to survive love, you’ll keep calling emotional starvation passion, and pushing away the safety you secretly crave.

This post isn't personal opinion.
It's grounded in attachment theory, neuroscience, Jungian psychology, and Buddhist insight.
It names something most of us feel but can’t explain:
Why we run from what we say we want.
Why chaos feels like chemistry.
Why safety feels boring.

You can heal.
But first, you have to tell the truth about what your body still believes it deserves.

.
We don’t rise to meet love.
We shrink to match our self-worth.

This truth isn’t about blame.
It’s about awareness, because until you understand how your nervous system learned to survive love, you’ll keep calling emotional starvation passion, and pushing away the safety you secretly crave.

This post isn't personal opinion.
It's grounded in attachment theory, neuroscience, Jungian psychology, and Buddhist insight.
It names something most of us feel but can’t explain:
Why we run from what we say we want.
Why chaos feels like chemistry.
Why safety feels boring.

You can heal.
But first, you have to tell the truth about what your body still believes it deserves.

.
To sit in your own skin with joy,
is the purest kind of liberation.

Naked does not always mean uncovered.
What you hold back can be just as powerful as what you reveal.
Between shadow and laughter, the body remembers its freedom.

Anamaria • 2024 • Cluj

.
To sit in your own skin with joy,
is the purest kind of liberation.

Naked does not always mean uncovered.
What you hold back can be just as powerful as what you reveal.
Between shadow and laughter, the body remembers its freedom.

Anamaria • 2024 • Cluj

.
I created this series because I was tired of watching people, including myself, confuse love with emotional enmeshment, fantasy, or avoidance.
The way we talk about love today is often diluted, performative, and rooted in emotional survival, not real growth.
These are the truths most of us resist, but need to confront if we want something deeper than dopamine.
You can’t build real love on fantasy, you can’t find truth while avoiding discomfort, and you can’t heal what you’re still romanticizing.

These are not personal opinions, they’re grounded in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, and lived human experience.
If they make you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is the threshold of transformation. This series is for those ready to stop lying to themselves.

#brutaltruths #love

.
I created this series because I was tired of watching people, including myself, confuse love with emotional enmeshment, fantasy, or avoidance.
The way we talk about love today is often diluted, performative, and rooted in emotional survival, not real growth.
These are the truths most of us resist, but need to confront if we want something deeper than dopamine.
You can’t build real love on fantasy, you can’t find truth while avoiding discomfort, and you can’t heal what you’re still romanticizing.

These are not personal opinions, they’re grounded in Stoicism, Buddhism, Jungian psychology, neuroscience, and lived human experience.
If they make you uncomfortable, good. Discomfort is the threshold of transformation. This series is for those ready to stop lying to themselves.

#brutaltruths #love

.
You do not live in a single outline.
You are blur that resists capture,
a shape that shifts,
a body that will not hold still.

Every reflection is yours,
each one a fragment,
each one a mark of time
no hand can erase.

This is the feminine
not an ornament for walls,
but the force that bends the frame,
steps beyond it,
and refuses to return.

And in the quiet of the in-between,
a little girl meets your gaze.
Her breath slows
for she knows at last
this is the woman she grew into,
the one she can return to
when she needs counsel,
when she needs proof
that becoming was worth it.

Paula • 2025 • Cluj

.
You do not live in a single outline.
You are blur that resists capture,
a shape that shifts,
a body that will not hold still.

Every reflection is yours,
each one a fragment,
each one a mark of time
no hand can erase.

This is the feminine
not an ornament for walls,
but the force that bends the frame,
steps beyond it,
and refuses to return.

And in the quiet of the in-between,
a little girl meets your gaze.
Her breath slows
for she knows at last
this is the woman she grew into,
the one she can return to
when she needs counsel,
when she needs proof
that becoming was worth it.

Paula • 2025 • Cluj

.
Because life, like dance, isn’t about perfection.
It’s about moving through it with honesty.

He’s been dancing since he was three, carrying rhythm and breath as his second language.

And now, for the very first time, he stepped in front of my camera for his first professional photoshoot.

Alex • 2025 • Cluj

.
Because life, like dance, isn’t about perfection.
It’s about moving through it with honesty.

He’s been dancing since he was three, carrying rhythm and breath as his second language.

And now, for the very first time, he stepped in front of my camera for his first professional photoshoot.

Alex • 2025 • Cluj

.
She is not always sharp in the frame.
Some days, she is movement
a sway, a flicker,
a pulse caught mid-breath.

But blur does not mean she is lost.
It means she is becoming.
It means the camera can’t quite
contain her edges.

In the shift between shadow and light,
her naked soul breathes
not as something to be looked at,
but as something to be felt.

Focus is not in how the world sees her,
but in how she sees herself.

Paula • Cluj • 2025

.
She is not always sharp in the frame.
Some days, she is movement
a sway, a flicker,
a pulse caught mid-breath.

But blur does not mean she is lost.
It means she is becoming.
It means the camera can’t quite
contain her edges.

In the shift between shadow and light,
her naked soul breathes
not as something to be looked at,
but as something to be felt.

Focus is not in how the world sees her,
but in how she sees herself.

Paula • Cluj • 2025

🌺 Bali - Day Two: Where the Water Spoke

There are places where the silence hums.
Where water doesn’t just purify
it remembers.
And when it touched my skin that morning,
something inside me cracked... gently.

The temple didn’t ask for prayers.
It asked for presence.
Feet bare on stone, cold water,
dragon coiled near my ear
then, a soft break.
Not an accident.
An omen.
The kind that comes like the butterfly the night before,
landing not on my finger but deep in my chest
staying long enough to whisper:
I see you!
you’re not who you were, not anymore.

That day, I didn’t just visit Bali.
I met the part of myself
that knew how to let go
without needing to explain why.

Bali • May • 2025

🌺 Bali - Day Two: Where the Water Spoke

There are places where the silence hums.
Where water doesn’t just purify
it remembers.
And when it touched my skin that morning,
something inside me cracked... gently.

The temple didn’t ask for prayers.
It asked for presence.
Feet bare on stone, cold water,
dragon coiled near my ear
then, a soft break.
Not an accident.
An omen.
The kind that comes like the butterfly the night before,
landing not on my finger but deep in my chest
staying long enough to whisper:
I see you!
you’re not who you were, not anymore.

That day, I didn’t just visit Bali.
I met the part of myself
that knew how to let go
without needing to explain why.

Bali • May • 2025

✨
And this is what you are feeling now.

2020 • Cluj• @flaviutanase

✨
And this is what you are feeling now.

2020 • Cluj• @flaviutanase

💃🏻
Some women don’t wait for life to bloom. They plant, lift, and build it with their own hands.
Today we celebrate one of them.
The kind of woman who turns grit into grace, pressure into purpose, and every day into something worth admiring.
Happy Birthday to you Florina!! 🫶🏻
You are a force of nature!!! ✨
Your power is quiet, steady, and unforgettable.👏🏻❤️

💃🏻
Some women don’t wait for life to bloom. They plant, lift, and build it with their own hands.
Today we celebrate one of them.
The kind of woman who turns grit into grace, pressure into purpose, and every day into something worth admiring.
Happy Birthday to you Florina!! 🫶🏻
You are a force of nature!!! ✨
Your power is quiet, steady, and unforgettable.👏🏻❤️

Bound to what my soul craves.
Doing my work. Not the kind they grade, applaud, or promote.
The kind that keeps me honest and helps me grow.
That lets me sleep at night.
That reflects the woman I’ve chosen to be.

Because what my soul craves isn’t success.
It’s peace.
And to feel proud of who I am when no one’s watching.

#doingmywork #boundtowhatmatters #innerwork #soulwork #peaceoverperfection #photographerslife

Bound to what my soul craves.
Doing my work. Not the kind they grade, applaud, or promote.
The kind that keeps me honest and helps me grow.
That lets me sleep at night.
That reflects the woman I’ve chosen to be.

Because what my soul craves isn’t success.
It’s peace.
And to feel proud of who I am when no one’s watching.

#doingmywork #boundtowhatmatters #innerwork #soulwork #peaceoverperfection #photographerslife

Bound to what my soul craves.
Doing my work. Not the kind they grade, applaud, or promote.
The kind that keeps me honest and helps me grow.
That lets me sleep at night.
That reflects the woman I’ve chosen to be.

Because what my soul craves isn’t success.
It’s peace.
And to feel proud of who I am when no one’s watching.

#doingmywork #boundtowhatmatters #innerwork #soulwork #peaceoverperfection #photographerslife

Bound to what my soul craves.
Doing my work. Not the kind they grade, applaud, or promote.
The kind that keeps me honest and helps me grow.
That lets me sleep at night.
That reflects the woman I’ve chosen to be.

Because what my soul craves isn’t success.
It’s peace.
And to feel proud of who I am when no one’s watching.

#doingmywork #boundtowhatmatters #innerwork #soulwork #peaceoverperfection #photographerslife

I didn’t want to see anyone that day.
So I wrote this instead.

The Cage and the Veil

There was once a girl who played alone
in the courtyard behind her grandparent's house.
The grapes were heavy with August,
and the air smelled like wet stone and time.

She wasn’t looking for anything,
but she found a cage
small, rusted, tucked between fig leaves and silence.
Inside it: nothing.
But nearby, a black veil danced in the wind,
hooked on an old nail like it had been waiting.
A single red thread curled through it,
like a warning, or a promise.

She put it on.
And for a moment, the world grew quieter.
Not sad, just… still.
Like something sacred had entered her skin
without asking for permission.

She never told anyone.
But since then,
light never looked the same

Ana• 2022• Cluj

I didn’t want to see anyone that day.
So I wrote this instead.

The Cage and the Veil

There was once a girl who played alone
in the courtyard behind her grandparent's house.
The grapes were heavy with August,
and the air smelled like wet stone and time.

She wasn’t looking for anything,
but she found a cage
small, rusted, tucked between fig leaves and silence.
Inside it: nothing.
But nearby, a black veil danced in the wind,
hooked on an old nail like it had been waiting.
A single red thread curled through it,
like a warning, or a promise.

She put it on.
And for a moment, the world grew quieter.
Not sad, just… still.
Like something sacred had entered her skin
without asking for permission.

She never told anyone.
But since then,
light never looked the same

Ana• 2022• Cluj

🤭🤣 TalaLulaBolundula

🤭🤣 TalaLulaBolundula

. Once there was a woman
who laid her body upon the earth,
in a courtyard that had turned to forest,
and the grass stirred at her arrival.
No eyes saw her,
but everything remembered
the leaf, the stone, the wind.

She came adorned in skin alone,
bare as a vow,
unarmored,
like the moment before a star is born.

Her body hummed
with the memory of sacredness,
from a time before forgetting.

The earth breathed beneath her,
and golden roots unfurled from her heels,
spiraling down into the crystal hush below.
A warmth
like a prayer remembered mid-dream
lit her bones from within.

Once,
she had worn a mask
woven of midnight and firelight,
feathers inked in black and gold,
a relic from another life
where she had to guard
what made her glow.

But the Full Moon came close that night,
soft and silver as prophecy,
and whispered:
“You are not made to hide. Let it fall.”

And so she did.

The sky didn’t roar.
It bowed in stillness.
The air turned fragrant with knowing.
The forest held its breath
as the altar rose around her.

She didn’t run.
She didn’t search for answers.
She let silence return her name
her skin, her pulse, her sight.

And as the moon held its breath above her,
the woman crossed the threshold.

Not into someone new,
but into herself
the one who could never again be dimmed,
too wild to fold,
too sovereign to be silenced,
the one who grew her golden crown
from the holy dark
of her own remembering.

Cluj • 2019

. Once there was a woman
who laid her body upon the earth,
in a courtyard that had turned to forest,
and the grass stirred at her arrival.
No eyes saw her,
but everything remembered
the leaf, the stone, the wind.

She came adorned in skin alone,
bare as a vow,
unarmored,
like the moment before a star is born.

Her body hummed
with the memory of sacredness,
from a time before forgetting.

The earth breathed beneath her,
and golden roots unfurled from her heels,
spiraling down into the crystal hush below.
A warmth
like a prayer remembered mid-dream
lit her bones from within.

Once,
she had worn a mask
woven of midnight and firelight,
feathers inked in black and gold,
a relic from another life
where she had to guard
what made her glow.

But the Full Moon came close that night,
soft and silver as prophecy,
and whispered:
“You are not made to hide. Let it fall.”

And so she did.

The sky didn’t roar.
It bowed in stillness.
The air turned fragrant with knowing.
The forest held its breath
as the altar rose around her.

She didn’t run.
She didn’t search for answers.
She let silence return her name
her skin, her pulse, her sight.

And as the moon held its breath above her,
the woman crossed the threshold.

Not into someone new,
but into herself
the one who could never again be dimmed,
too wild to fold,
too sovereign to be silenced,
the one who grew her golden crown
from the holy dark
of her own remembering.

Cluj • 2019

There was a softness I couldn’t name,
as if the world whispered through light.
Rain fell like it was remembering something,
and I watched, without needing to understand.

The golden hour didn’t rush,
it spilled
on my hands, on the glass, on the quiet.
Even the shadows felt kissed....

And for once, I didn’t reach for meaning
I let the beauty be enough
And maybe, just maybe, I was the moment, too.

There was a softness I couldn’t name,
as if the world whispered through light.
Rain fell like it was remembering something,
and I watched, without needing to understand.

The golden hour didn’t rush,
it spilled
on my hands, on the glass, on the quiet.
Even the shadows felt kissed....

And for once, I didn’t reach for meaning
I let the beauty be enough
And maybe, just maybe, I was the moment, too.

🌺 Bali Posting Frenzy: Initiated.
I took my time... but the scroll is about to get tropical.
Sun-kissed, soul-fed, and finally ready to show you the magic I lived.
This is your gentle warning: tropical spam incoming. With extra love, fruit, and barefoot wisdom. 🐚✨🌴

#BaliDiaries #SacredJourney #BaliRetreat #TropicalSoul #IslandMagic
#PostcardsFromBali #WildAndWise #SunKissedSkinSoulLitWithin
#FeminineRetreat #BarefootDreams #SelfLoveInBloom #RetreatVibes
#WanderWithMeaning #BaliVibesOnly #BaliThroughMyLens #2025magic

🌺 Bali Posting Frenzy: Initiated.
I took my time... but the scroll is about to get tropical.
Sun-kissed, soul-fed, and finally ready to show you the magic I lived.
This is your gentle warning: tropical spam incoming. With extra love, fruit, and barefoot wisdom. 🐚✨🌴

#BaliDiaries #SacredJourney #BaliRetreat #TropicalSoul #IslandMagic
#PostcardsFromBali #WildAndWise #SunKissedSkinSoulLitWithin
#FeminineRetreat #BarefootDreams #SelfLoveInBloom #RetreatVibes
#WanderWithMeaning #BaliVibesOnly #BaliThroughMyLens #2025magic

.
Looking back at who I was

Looking back at who I was
What I thought
What I believed and who
How I did things
My ways of exploring into the nature of the human I was born
Into my culture, my education
My roles, my friends,
My acquaintances

I have nothing left but smile.

The smile that is like a white handkerchief
In the wind
Saying 'Go in peace. Go in peace.'

And then I get a millionth breakup text
But this time, I let that empty hole in my stomach get wider and louder
Because if goodbyes are hard
Then saying goodbye to an imaginary bundle of thoughts, ideas, beliefs and old shoes,
Is not harder.

It's actually easy, because the energy dries out
Like a plug has been pulled out
And you just don't feel like doing it
Saying it
Smoking it
Drinking it
Sucking it
You just don't feel any drive for the stuff that used to give you a decent sense
Of self-punishment
Dressed as progressive thinking
With a bow tie stolen from young Houdini.

And so we acknowledge that it's the third time tonight
That the old cuckoo clock
Is singing midnight.

words by Cristina

@c_burduja • 2023• Cluj

.
Looking back at who I was

Looking back at who I was
What I thought
What I believed and who
How I did things
My ways of exploring into the nature of the human I was born
Into my culture, my education
My roles, my friends,
My acquaintances

I have nothing left but smile.

The smile that is like a white handkerchief
In the wind
Saying 'Go in peace. Go in peace.'

And then I get a millionth breakup text
But this time, I let that empty hole in my stomach get wider and louder
Because if goodbyes are hard
Then saying goodbye to an imaginary bundle of thoughts, ideas, beliefs and old shoes,
Is not harder.

It's actually easy, because the energy dries out
Like a plug has been pulled out
And you just don't feel like doing it
Saying it
Smoking it
Drinking it
Sucking it
You just don't feel any drive for the stuff that used to give you a decent sense
Of self-punishment
Dressed as progressive thinking
With a bow tie stolen from young Houdini.

And so we acknowledge that it's the third time tonight
That the old cuckoo clock
Is singing midnight.

words by Cristina

@c_burduja • 2023• Cluj

.
✨Între roluri și lumini, am căutat omul.

Am gândit acest proiect pentru The Inner ca pe un dublu dar: o provocare personală, să surprind esența într-un context grăbit, lipsit de artificii, și un gest pentru voi, un memento să ne reamintim că suntem, înainte de toate, oameni, nu doar roluri.

Am fotografiat speakerii și oamenii din culisele The Inner
în cele mai simple condiții: o cameră, lumină disponibilă, cinci minute. Fără lumini de studio, fără decoruri, fără repetiții.

Am vrut să privesc dincolo de roluri, dincolo de „speaker” sau „organizator”, și să surprind omul.
Acel om care rămâne prezent și când scena tace.

A fost un exercițiu de prezență și adevăr.
Un spațiu sincer, fără mască, pe care am vrut să-l ofer lor.
Și o provocare personală: să surprind esența în mijlocul imperfecțiunii.

Acest proiect este extensia tăcută a iubirii mele pentru portret.
Un gest de încetinire în ritmul alert al unei zile de eveniment.
Un memento că uneori, în doar cinci minute și cu lumină minimă, poți atinge adevărul unui suflet.

Mulțumesc, The Inner, pentru încredere.
Mulțumesc vouă, celor care v-ați lăsat văzuți.

2025 • Cluj

.
✨Între roluri și lumini, am căutat omul.

Am gândit acest proiect pentru The Inner ca pe un dublu dar: o provocare personală, să surprind esența într-un context grăbit, lipsit de artificii, și un gest pentru voi, un memento să ne reamintim că suntem, înainte de toate, oameni, nu doar roluri.

Am fotografiat speakerii și oamenii din culisele The Inner
în cele mai simple condiții: o cameră, lumină disponibilă, cinci minute. Fără lumini de studio, fără decoruri, fără repetiții.

Am vrut să privesc dincolo de roluri, dincolo de „speaker” sau „organizator”, și să surprind omul.
Acel om care rămâne prezent și când scena tace.

A fost un exercițiu de prezență și adevăr.
Un spațiu sincer, fără mască, pe care am vrut să-l ofer lor.
Și o provocare personală: să surprind esența în mijlocul imperfecțiunii.

Acest proiect este extensia tăcută a iubirii mele pentru portret.
Un gest de încetinire în ritmul alert al unei zile de eveniment.
Un memento că uneori, în doar cinci minute și cu lumină minimă, poți atinge adevărul unui suflet.

Mulțumesc, The Inner, pentru încredere.
Mulțumesc vouă, celor care v-ați lăsat văzuți.

2025 • Cluj

.
Weightless

There is a moment
when the body no longer asks
whether it is falling or flying.

A moment when something soft unhooks
a memory, a name, an old permission slip.
And suddenly, the air feels different.
Quieter.
Deeper.
Alive in ways she cannot name.

This is not escape.
This is not surrender.

It is the exact center
between what she no longer carries
and what has not yet arrived.

Here, she is nothing but breath.
Nothing but skin in conversation with gravity.
Nothing but the echo of every version of her
who once believed she needed to be smaller to be safe.

She is not waiting for the ground to catch her.
She is not reaching for the sky to hold her.

She is the air between both.
She is the answer that lives
between the inhale and the letting go

By @flaviutanase 2022 • Cluj
words by yours truly ✨

.
Weightless

There is a moment
when the body no longer asks
whether it is falling or flying.

A moment when something soft unhooks
a memory, a name, an old permission slip.
And suddenly, the air feels different.
Quieter.
Deeper.
Alive in ways she cannot name.

This is not escape.
This is not surrender.

It is the exact center
between what she no longer carries
and what has not yet arrived.

Here, she is nothing but breath.
Nothing but skin in conversation with gravity.
Nothing but the echo of every version of her
who once believed she needed to be smaller to be safe.

She is not waiting for the ground to catch her.
She is not reaching for the sky to hold her.

She is the air between both.
She is the answer that lives
between the inhale and the letting go

By @flaviutanase 2022 • Cluj
words by yours truly ✨

.
✨Între roluri și lumini, am căutat omul.

Am gândit acest proiect pentru The Inner ca pe un dublu dar: o provocare personală - să surprind esența într-un context grăbit, lipsit de artificii,
și un gest pentru voi - un memento să ne reamintim că suntem, înainte de toate, oameni, nu doar roluri.

Mulțumesc The Inner.
Mulțumesc vouă, celor care v-ați lăsat văzuți.

✨ Between roles and lights, I searched for the human.

I created this project for The Inner as a double gift:
a personal challenge - to capture essence in a fast-paced, unpolished context,
and a gesture for you - a reminder that, before anything else, we are human, not just roles.

Thank you, The Inner.
Thank you to those who allowed yourselves to be seen.

2025 • Cluj

.
✨Între roluri și lumini, am căutat omul.

Am gândit acest proiect pentru The Inner ca pe un dublu dar: o provocare personală - să surprind esența într-un context grăbit, lipsit de artificii,
și un gest pentru voi - un memento să ne reamintim că suntem, înainte de toate, oameni, nu doar roluri.

Mulțumesc The Inner.
Mulțumesc vouă, celor care v-ați lăsat văzuți.

✨ Between roles and lights, I searched for the human.

I created this project for The Inner as a double gift:
a personal challenge - to capture essence in a fast-paced, unpolished context,
and a gesture for you - a reminder that, before anything else, we are human, not just roles.

Thank you, The Inner.
Thank you to those who allowed yourselves to be seen.

2025 • Cluj

.
No mask. No noise.
Just a woman in her element—
calm, certain, and unapologetically herself.

Mirela 2024 Cluj

#EditorialPortrait #TimelessElegance #PowerInPresence #BlackAndWhiteMagic

.
No mask. No noise.
Just a woman in her element—
calm, certain, and unapologetically herself.

Mirela 2024 Cluj

#EditorialPortrait #TimelessElegance #PowerInPresence #BlackAndWhiteMagic

.
Tu nu ești greșeala nimănui.
Tu ești ecoul femeilor care n-au fost auzite.
Ochii tăi nu mai cer aprobare — ei cheamă Adevărul.
Nu ești un trup de folosit.
Ești un templu ce se aprinde din interior.

Privește bine.
Aceasta este femeia care s-a ținut întreagă în întuneric.
Aceasta este femeia care nu mai cere voie să existe.

Ea sunt eu.
Eu sunt ea.
Și nu mă mai închin în fața nimănui.

.
Tu nu ești greșeala nimănui.
Tu ești ecoul femeilor care n-au fost auzite.
Ochii tăi nu mai cer aprobare — ei cheamă Adevărul.
Nu ești un trup de folosit.
Ești un templu ce se aprinde din interior.

Privește bine.
Aceasta este femeia care s-a ținut întreagă în întuneric.
Aceasta este femeia care nu mai cere voie să existe.

Ea sunt eu.
Eu sunt ea.
Și nu mă mai închin în fața nimănui.

16 years ago I started taking pictures and I haven't stopped since.
Today I present you Ana, she came for a Personal Branding photoshoot. We did more than that ✨

@tritean.ana Thank you for trusting me 🫶🏻🔥

Amazing outfit by @mauve___upcycling
Styling by me

16 years ago I started taking pictures and I haven't stopped since.
Today I present you Ana, she came for a Personal Branding photoshoot. We did more than that ✨

@tritean.ana Thank you for trusting me 🫶🏻🔥

Amazing outfit by @mauve___upcycling
Styling by me

... make the leap even if the ground has not appeared yet.

Anamaria • 2024 • Cluj

... make the leap even if the ground has not appeared yet.

Anamaria • 2024 • Cluj

. I have loved deeply,
I have lost.
I have burned.
I have drowned.

Yet here I stand,
softer,
stronger,
more woman than ever before.

I was not made to break.

I was made to rise

. I have loved deeply,
I have lost.
I have burned.
I have drowned.

Yet here I stand,
softer,
stronger,
more woman than ever before.

I was not made to break.

I was made to rise

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