MOLDPRES master photographer inaugurates personal photo exhibition on Transnistria War

Chisinau, 3 March /MOLDPRES/ - A personal exhibition of photographs titled, Sad Memories, taken by master photographer Mihai Vengher during the Transnistria War in the spring and summer of 1992 year, was inaugurated at the History Museum of the Chisinau city today.    

The event is organized by the host institution, in cooperation with the Military Museum and the History and Philosophy Faculty of the Moldovan State University (USM). 

The exhibition comprises 30 photos of the archive of the author, who was on the battlefield during the Transnistria War. 

In the beginning of the event, the museum’s director, Valeria Suruceanu, said that the event was dedicated to the day of the memory of those who died in the Transnistria War. “The exhibition shows tragic pages from our relatively recent history. We see here awful pictures from the battlefield, destroyed houses in the rear, wounded in hospitals, burials of those who died in the war for the independence and territorial integrity of Moldova. These events occupy a special place in our memory and we should never forget those who sacrificed their lives for the motherland,” Valeria Suruceanu said.  

In the context, university professor Anatol Petrencu said that this exhibition impressed by the terrible pictures from that unequal war, which left deep and painful traces in our souls. “We owe a lot to those who died for the independence of the motherland. These pictures speak more than a book about what happened in the spring and summer of 1992,” Anatol Petrencu stressed.     

For his part, Mihai Vengher a said that he had been the youngest photo-reporter to go to the bridgeheads from Cosnita, Cocieri and Tighina. “Here, there are is only a small part of my archive on this subject. There are much sadder pictures, which I never displayed. I hope that I will soon organize a more comprehensive exhibition about those tragic events,” Vengher noted.       

Mihai Vengher was born in the Colicauti village, northern Briceni district, on 2 December 1962. In 1989, he graduated from the Journalism Faculty of the Moldovan State University. Starting the same year, he got employed at the MOLDPRES Public Institution State News Agency. He is author of numerous photos included in an album with a unique value titled, The Independence Parliament. During the Transnistria War, he was always with camera on battlefield. The pictures taken by him on that period were published in the national and international media, in the books Transnistria în flăcări (Transnistria in Flames) by Gheorghe Budeanu and Râul de sânge (The Blood River) by Valentina Ursu. Mihai Vengher is member of the Union of Artists photographers and of the Fine Artists Union of Moldova. Starting from 2016, under presidential decree, Mihai Vengher was awarded the tile of Art Master, “for long and prodigious work in mass media, contribution to the development of the photographic art and higher artistic mastership.”    

The exhibition will be open during one week.