Intimate moments between couples totally in love caught on camera

The photographer hopes to creat a 'map of love'

Kashmira Gander
Tuesday 13 December 2016 07:03 EST
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Natalia Mindru is invited into strangers' homes to capture their relationships
Natalia Mindru is invited into strangers' homes to capture their relationships (Natalia Mindru)

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A couple jumping on a bed in their underpants like children. Another pair with their hair intervtwined like a bird's nest after play-fighting. These are some of the raw moments captured by photographer Natalia Mindru in her Urban Love project.

The photographer based in Bucharest, Romania, is approached by strangers who want to be snapped on social media, and captures them in their homes. Each session takes around two hours. First, she will get to know the couple a little to gain their trust, before observing and shooting them. For some, the experience is their first in front of a professional photographer’s lens.

Mindru hopes the series shows that there is the space for "beautiful love stories" in our "crazy crowded lives".

"All the couples I’ve photographed, whatever their life style, age and status, have things in common. They are gentle, playful, emotional, and sometimes messy. I feel their pulse and heart beating when they look at each other."

The experience can even change their relationship, she says, adding it allows them to "cross borders" and see their love from "another perspective."

But Mindru admits that while she attmepts to caputre the couple’s natural behaviour, it is impossible for her presence to go completely unnoticed.

“There is no any tree to hide and behave like a paparazzo. I’m not invisible. I’m there, sometimes very close, always present and involved.”

Next year, Mindru plans to go travel to Germany, Portugal, Spain, the US and India to continue her project.

"Maybe to find cultural differences or maybe to prove that people love each other in the same way no matter where they live."

"It is going to be like a map of love – with couples from different countries sharing their real stories and inspiring other people to believe in love."

"I encourage any couple willing to participate in my project to contact me," she adds.

Click here to vist Mindru's website.

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