Ode to the Lake Sacalaia

This first monograph by C Fodoreanu is a book of deeply personal photographs and writings, depicting images of water and people taken at Lake Sacalaia, a mysterious lake in Transylvania where, according to legend, an underwater village of submerged Roman ruins still rests at the bottom. The book explores the tension of self-discovery and identity, queer or not, and the in-between states of one's self-awareness, paying homage to younger selves searching for faith and ideals, and reconnecting to what holds one true to oneself — all of it set against the artist’s pediatric practice, where he sees daily what becomes of children’s early ideals.

The book takes a haptic approach to representing the changing depths and pressure of water. The fifty-two photographs unfold across three sections of progressively thinner paper. The cover’s three die cuts trace the topographic depth lines of the lake itself. The reader, in turning the pages, descends.

The book includes essays by Seph Rodney, PhD — “To Be Rowing” — and Shana Nys Dambrot — “The Lake: Monsters & Metaphors.” Both writers are recipients of the Rabkin Prize for Art Criticism (Rodney 2020, Dambrot 2022). Rodney is also a recipient of the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.