Iris Maria Tușa is a Romanian photographer whose evocative work explores the personal histories and collective experiences that shape the way we perceive the world. Trained as a biologist and Antarctic researcher, she now focuses on photographic projects, working often in her native Dobrogea region in southeastern Romania.
Carrying a quiet nostalgia, Iris’ photographs inhabit the space between documentary and imagination. Grounded in real communities yet open to interpretation and layered meaning, her work is both deeply personal and observant.
Iris’ photographic series, Thresholds (2024) and Childhood Memories (2017–2023), draw on her childhood growing up in rural Dobrogea. More than an ethnographic study of the region, Iris’ work reimagines familiar settings as spaces of transition, between memory and imagination, reality and fantasy. Transforming autobiographical recollections into fragmented visual language, she weaves individual stories into a collective portrait. Through playful yet tranquil imagery, Iris invites viewers to look beyond the socio-economic context of her subjects and discover shared emotions that transcend individual experience. In doing so, she explores how personal histories connect us, what makes each memory unique, and how fragments of the past can become a lyrical exploration of belonging, place, and identity.
Iris Maria Tușa’s work has been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally. She has published three books, including a photobook from her Childhood Memories project.
