Jakobstraße 25a, 52064 Aachen
Mo-Thu: 10-14:30h
Fr-So: 14-17h
For the documentary ‘Daughters of Magic’, Johanna-Maria Fritz accompanied Mihaela Minca and her family for over a year and a half. Mihaela Minca is considered the most powerful witch in Romania, a professional tradition that has been cultivated in her family for genera tions. Even her mother and grandmother were witches. Today, together with her daughters and daughter-in-law she runs a flourishing busi ness: from love spells to curses, the witches offer a diverse repertoire. They receive enquiries from all over the world via the internet. But magic and the art of predicting the future are more than just a profession for them - they are an integral part of their lives and their community. In this Roma family and their close-knit community in south-east Europe, magic and mysticism are a matter of course, and the craft of witchcraft also represents a form of female strength in a male-dominated culture.
Johanna-Maria Fritz, born in 1994, officially lives in Berlin - but in fact she is travelling all year round. She studied photography at the Ostkreuzschule and has been a member of the agency of the same name since the beginning of 2019.
Her work focuses primarily on disadvantaged or forgotten groups, women and conflict regions. Her photos have been published in Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, Le Monde and National Geographic, among others. She has also been honoured with the Inge Morath Prize, the Peace Prize for Pho tography and the World Press Photo Award.
