FLORIN ION FIRIMITA
Florin Ion Firimita is a visual artist, educator, and writer. He took his first photograph at the young age of three using a Soviet-made Zenith camera.
His interest in photography could be traced back to his father's modest amateur photo lab in Bucharest, Romania, where he was entrusted with mixing chemicals, developing film, and printing black-and-white images since he was six years old.
After his parents' death, he continued to study painting and drawing and kept taking photographs while holding jobs such as welder, grave digger, janitor, window decorator, and security guard.
After relocating to the United States in 1990, Florin's photography, mixed media work, and writings have been featured in galleries and art magazines in Argentina, France, England, and the U.S.
The Art of Leaving, a film about his art, was released in 2003. Based on almost 3,000 pages of journal entries, the film took three years to make and was the official selection of seven international film festivals such as Santa Fe, Durango, New York, Chicago, and Montreal's 23rd Festival International du Film Sur L'art. A second documentary, Dream Cages, filmed by Jeff Teitler during the 2020/ 2022 pandemic, is underway.
His fine art photography work can be found in many private and public collections in Europe, Australia, and the United States.