“A couple of years after getting a B.A. in Cinematography, photography and media in Cluj-Napoca, I started working as a camerawoman at a regional studio in my hometown, Miercurea Ciuc, a Hungarian majority town in Transylvania, Romania. This year – 2014 – was also the start for collaborations – as a photographer – with journalist colleagues and publications on a local and regional level. Most of my freelancing work has been done in different parts of Romania, focusing on the region of Transylvania. Actually this is the place I know and understand the best”. – Zsuzsánna Fodor, winner 2022 VID Grant.

Zsuzsánna’s ongoing project, with provisional title The best they could. The best we can. explores women’s roles and transgenerational patterns through her own relationships, some elusive stories of and from her grandmother. In her work Zsuzsánna also uses archival images from the magazine DolgozóNő – Working Woman, that was published in the Hungarian language in Romania between 1945 and 1989.


“My interest for social and human rights issues in my photography came with the start of collaborations with newspapers, online news platforms and like-minded fellow journalists. The topics of these collaborations in the context of photojournalism were primarily minorities, gender and migration“. – Zsuzsánna Fodor, winner 2022 VID Grant.
Zsuzsánna’s work is very visually appealing. Her project is a personal story of women who are reexamining their own narrative in relation to the propaganda of the past. Often a neglected aspect of how we look at history, gender and societal development.



“My photography practice is shifting towards a more conceptual approach through which these topics are becoming more specific and more nuanced”. – Zsuzsánna Fodor, winner 2022 VID Grant.




Zsuzsánna’s work looks critically at why people are a certain way. How do the past experiences of our community influence the roles we assume in our personal relationships? How did such magazines for women such as Dolgozó Nő – Working Woman relate to the people who were reading these magazines? The work also looks at excavation of archival materials whose primary purpose was propagandistic.

“It is important to understand the personal stories in their historical context and to retell them at some point without feelings of guilt, blame, shame, fear or self-victimization. I am truly happy about being offered the VID Grant because it can help me explore these narratives through its mentoring process”. – Zsuzsánna Fodor, winner 2022 VID Grant.