Ramin Mazur (Moldavia)
Butterfly Disease
Epidermolysis bullosa (EB), also called butterfly disease, is a group of rare inherited skin diseases that are characterized by the development of blisters following minimal pressure to the skin. In the Republic of Moldova there are about 50 people with this disease and they have no state social security only because the state doesn't know anything about them and how to treat this disease. Eugen Brad, who has a critical case of EB, wanted to change this situation, even thought he didn't know if there were other people in Moldova with same disease. He has founded an organisation, Debra Moldova, which aims to unite people with this problem, to discuss the problems they face, and to advise how to fight the anguish with which they live.
Ramin Mazur was born in the territory of the left bank of the river Dniester, in the Moldavian Soviet Republic which became an unrecognized state of Transnistria after 1991. After graduating from the Journalism Department of Moldavian State University in Chisinau he began to work with different print media in his country as photo reporter. The lack of understanding in local media of what actually photojournalism is, led him to work on his own independent projects.
Awards
2013 Magnum Foundation Human Rights and Photography Fellowship
2011 Council of Europe Youth Media Award
Exibitions
2012/11 Butterfly Disease open air exhibition in Chisinau
Education
2013 - New York University, Tisch School of Art, Documentary photography and Human Rights (New York, USA)
2010 - Moldavian State University, Journalism Department (Chisinau, Moldova)