Cosmin Bumbut is one of the most appreciated photographers in Romania both in commercial (advertising, fashion, editorial) and art worlds.

He recently launched his new web site—among the novelties, a set of photos of inmates taken in Aiud prison that made waves encircling the world-wide web.

Of special interest, for some, may be a gallery of ads for which Cosmin signed the photography. One hundred of them, taken within a timeframe ranging from 1997 until nowadays. Lots and lots of ads marking not only a most impressive body of work but also a time-lapse cross-section in the history of advertising. From the first studio shots with minimum resources to increasingly elaborate shots taken in location, with lots of extras and difficult scripts or big props, the gallery is a pretty accurate representation of the rise of the industry's professional standards.

I was involved in some of them [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 for instance, but not only] either as an art director or some other way—this is also one of the reasons why the gallery rings my bell. The picture above was taken during a photo session for Connex Play on the seaside. One of the ads we've made there is on the list.