Romanian photographer Vanda Bienville is joining RAWGUE. Magazine with a beautiful editorial titled ‘Iele,’ a stunning visual retelling of the oral story of the native pagan feminine spirits of the forests from Romanian folklore.

According to the legends, the Iele are the archetypal ladies of the woods, heavily charged with mysticism and influences deeply rooted in traditions and religious syncretism. They are perfect examples of nature acting upon those who trespass across their thresholds. They reflect the grandeur of the forests and their beauty but also the dangers that lurk deep within them. While vampires are the night creatures widely popularized outside the country, the Iele are perhaps the most quintessential symbol of Romanian legends, representing both the long connection of its people to and their fascination with the forests as much as their respect and submission in front of their alluring mystery.

Through this series, Bienville reconnects with their roots, offering a tribute to local legends and allowing viewers to peek behind the curtain, which is normally forbidden. The photographer successfully recreates the cryptic scenery that defines the stories, bringing to attention the habits of these spirits and the unsettling doom to which the unwitting men who dare to watch them practicing their rituals are condemned. Through the use of monochrome, the artist enhances the foreboding sense of dread, which many would consider grim, while the locals might even look at it as comical.

Bienville’s project is a tribute to their grandmother and her quiet, ominous stories. It is an answer to unasked questions, an explanation of self. The self that is so deeply connected to a certain perception, particular culture, and tales that it cannot be fully understood in separation from them.

A mysterious female character with vaguely witchy characteristics and supernatural powers is present in all folklore on earth. Yet, each and every one of them is unique and dear to those who heard about them in hushed voices around the fire. ‘Iele’ is presented with care, attention, and coherent artistic vision, but none of it makes it special. It is a deep personal connection, love, and grief that makes it outstanding. It is Bienville’s passion, mourning and longing for mystical, ungraspable beauty that writes the story with the photographs.

Artist’s Note:

“‘Iele’—my grandmother used to tell me she had seen them. Late at night, near a fountain, women made of light and wind danced in a circle where no one had planted anything and yet nothing grew. She told me this the way she told me everything true—quietly, without needing me to believe her.

In Romanian folklore, the Iele are wild, supernatural feminine spirits. Beautiful and untouchable, they move between worlds that the living are not meant to enter. Any man who witnesses their dance is forever changed—struck with madness, obsession, or a longing he cannot name. They do not haunt. They simply exist, luminous and indifferent, and the world rearranges itself around them.

She passed away before I could ask her everything I wanted to ask. Before I could ask her what they looked like, exactly. Whether she was afraid. Whether she went back.”

“This project is my answer to her stories. A way of saying, ‘I believe you. I see them too.’ I built it for her, and then I tried to explain it to my friends in France—how some things live between the real and the imagined, how a grandmother’s voice at night can be its own kind of magic, how a word in Romanian can carry an entire world inside it.

I write and I photograph for the same reason: to mourn and to make beautiful. To hold what is leaving. To give form to what cannot be held.

‘Iele’ is an act of grief and wonder, in equal measure—a daughter’s offering to a woman who once stood by a fountain at night and came home changed.”