Five people and a lot of window
We started as two photographers sharing a rented room on Strada Pușkin. The print works came later, and so did film.
We would rather wait forty minutes for the sun to come round than light a face that the window could light better.
Written on the whiteboard in Hall B since 2021.
How the courtyard on Mateevici happened
In 2019 the old print works behind number 84 had been empty for six years.
The upstairs offices still had their oak parquet under a layer of linoleum, and the press hall downstairs had a floor strong enough for anything. We signed a lease on the upstairs first, pulled up the linoleum over two weekends and photographed our first portrait in that room before the paint was dry.
The cyclorama went into the press hall a year later, built by a carpenter from Ialoveni who had never made one and now has built three. Film came with the cove: clients who booked us for stills began asking whether we could shoot the moving version on the same day, and it was cheaper for everyone if we could.
The grading suite is the newest room, finished in spring 2025. Having it in the building means the person who lit the shot is twenty metres away when it is being graded, which is the main reason our film work looks the way it does.
Who answers the phone and who holds the camera
Usually the same people. On bigger jobs we bring in freelancers we have worked with for years.
Irina Ceban
Photographer, co-founderPortraits and fashion. Grew up in Buiucani, studied at the Academy of Arts, keeps the window calendar for Hall B.
Andrei Rusu
Photographer, co-founderProduct and still life. Built half the props room from things found at the Sunday flea market by the railway station.
Victor Lungu
Director and cameraDocumentary background, eight years filming for regional television before joining the studio. Runs the film side.
Daniela Moraru
Colourist and retoucherGrades every film we make and most of the stills. Works best with the door closed and the lamp on.
Sergiu Popa
Studio managerBooks the halls, runs the kit room and opens the gate at 8:00. The person you will speak to first.
What we turn down, and why
Saying no early saves both sides a week.
- Weddings. Other studios in Chișinău do them far better, and we are glad to pass on names.
- Jobs where the deadline leaves no time for a recce on a location day.
- Retouching that changes the shape of a person's body.
- Shoots in someone's home or workplace without their written agreement.
- Political campaigns, of any side.
Talk to the people who will be on set
Sergiu picks up the phone on weekdays and puts you through to whoever will shoot your job.