Mugur Varzariu

Concerned photographer and human rights activist stubbornly revisiting stories of disenfranchisement

“For me, in order to visit a community, it’s not aesthetics that matter but rather the abuses. I’m not there to take a picture, but to report an injustice.” Mugur Varzariu

With extensive experience in marketing and strategy, a graduate of the Academy of Economic Studies and holder of an EMBA, armed with legal studies and the ability to write, at the age of 40, Mugur Varzariu dedicated himself to documentary photography.

From the outset of his career, through assignments in Syria, Tunisia and Egypt, Romanian born photographer Mugur Varzariu understood the role of his trade, and made the decision that shaped the future of his photography.
“I could either follow everyone else or follow my conscience,” he explains. “I felt the impact of my pictures on one hand, and the suffering of the people I was photographing on the other. So I had to find another way to navigate.”

Consciously choosing not to jump from one story to the next, he sought out stories that remained untold and delved deeper into his subjects than the superficial contact the industry normally allows. Deciding instead to tell the stories of those left behind, the unrepresented ones existing forgotten, ignored on the edges of our societies. Roma communities, prostitution, human trafficking, abandoned children, the elderly, obesity, Holocaust survivors and post communist era social issues have all been explored in Varzariu’s work.

My first exhibition at Visa pour l'Image

After four nights of screenings, this year I had my first photography exhibition as part of the prestigious International Photojournalism Festival Visa pour l'Image in Perpignan, France.

Loving Colours

The Loving Colours Association was established at the end of 2017 to be able to demolish the segregation wall in Baia Mare and to represent the Roma people from Eforie Sud in court, who were forcibly evacuated in 2013 by the local authorities. In 2024, the Loving Colours Association obtained a final court ruling to demolish the wall on Horea Street in Baia Mare. Additionally, in 2023, it obtained 150,000 EUR and social housing for 6 individuals from Eforie Sud.