Alex Gâlmeanu (born October 29, 1978, in Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian photographer, visual artist, and image director specializing in editorial, advertising, fashion, and experimental photography. He is renowned for his numerous photographic portraits of Romanian personalities and for creating national and international advertising campaigns for well-known brands. Gâlmeanu also pursues personal projects, including the photographic series "People I Know" and "Anastasia," as well as the project "The Museum of Photography."
Gâlmeanu completed his studies at the National University of Arts in Bucharest, specializing in Photography and Computerized Image Processing. His passion for photography began at an early age. He started his photography career in April 1992 at 14, learning to photograph using the photographic equipment available in his parent's home, including a functional photo lab.
Gâlmeanu began his professional photography career in 1998 at the Ringier media group, working with the company's leading "glossy" publications. In 2002, he opened his photo studio and company, expanding his collaborations to other media groups and publications (Elle, Marie Claire, Esquire, GQ, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, and others). In the following years, his collaborations expanded to the advertising market, working with local and international advertising agencies photographing commercial campaigns for brands such as Coca-Cola, Orange, Audi, BMW, Samsung, Huawei, Raiffeisen, Philips, Avon, Oriflame, Pantene, among others.
Alex Gâlmeanu held his first personal exhibition, "People I Know," at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Bucharest in April 2005. In 2007, he exhibited "Ma Roumanie" in Nantes, France, on the occasion of the "French-Romanian Partnerships and Europe" congress, organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Paris. In 2008, the "People I Know" series was exhibited in Paris under the patronage of the Romanian Ambassador to France, Teodor Baconschi. Gâlmeanu's works were also shown in Toulouse in May 2010, Reykjavik in September 2011, and Cork in November 2011, all organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Paris and London. In December 2016, he participated in the "Dada Roots" contemporary art exhibition organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Warsaw.
Gâlmeanu collaborated with director Oana Bujgoi Giurgiu in making the documentary film "Spioni de ocazie," produced by Libra Film. The film premiered at the Transylvania International Film Festival (TIFF) in Cluj in June 2021 and was screened in cinemas throughout Romania. The production was awarded the title of "The Best Documentary Film" at the "2023 Gopo Awards", one of the most important awards in Romanian contemporary cinematography.
In February 2020, Artmark Auction House presented two of Gâlmeanu's images at the "Post-War and Contemporary Art No. 353" auction. Two of his images were also published in the book "Accidentally Wes Anderson" in October 2020.
Over time, the artist has created photographic posters and promo materials for some international film productions such as "No One Gets Out Alive" (2021), produced by Netflix, and "Django" (2022), produced by Sky and Canal+, as well as for official posters of some Romanian film productions, including "Ana, mon amour" (2017), "Morometii 2" (2018), "Acasă, My Home" (2020), "Miracle" (2021).
In 2021, Gâlmeanu created the photo and video component of the social campaign "Atingeri Nedorite," aimed at combating the sexual abuse of minors. The campaign won several awards, including "Campaign of the Year" at the 2022 Digital Communication Awards and the Film & Video category winner at the 2022 European Excellence Awards.
Additionally, Alex Gâlmeanu was a Creative Board of the Diploma Festival member in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. At the 2022 Diploma edition, Gâlmeanu was also appointed as an "ambassador" of the festival, in which the photographer promoted the event through a series of interviews.