Elena Stancu

Photographer Cosmin Bumbuț and journalist Elena Stancu have been documenting Romanian migrant communities across Europe for six and a half years. So far they have travelled to 12 countries and published more than 130 reports on seasonal workers in Germany, doctors and nurses in England, tourism employees in Portugal, farmers in Norway, naval electricians in Denmark, researchers in Sweden, students in the Netherlands, women working in cleaning in Spain and those caring for the elderly in Italy.

The two travel in a campervan and become part of the lives of those they document; their project captures the work, daily life and integration process of Romanian migrants and their transnational families.

“Plecat” is the most extensive documentary project about Romanian migration in Europe. It was shortlisted for the True Story Award in 2025, the European Press Prize in 2023, received a fellowship from the Pulitzer Center in 2021, and has won several Romanian photography and journalism awards.

They have made two documentary films: Ultimul căldărar (2016) and Rezidentele (2018). In 2017 they published the reportage collection Acasă, pe drum (Humanitas).