© Cătălin Munteanu

"After25 - The closed gates of industry." The closure of the factories and refineries around the city of Ploiești, Romania, affected the life of tens maybe hundred of thousands of people. It is hard not to have regrets regarding the falling of these colossi who were put to the ground in the last twenty years, after being up and running for decades, even centuries. The strife of generations was sold for scraps and the big gates of industry were closed forever. In 1856-1857 here was opened the world’s first oil refinery. If in 1820 the population of the city was around 2.000 people, in the first years of the 20th century the numbers of inhabitants reached to more then 50.000. The highest number of the population was in 1992 - 252.715. The reason for such a blooming in the numbers is due to the industry. The facts from here are similar with what happened after the fall of communism all over the country and from a productive nation, the population of Romania became a consumerist one. Where once plants and refineries were seen, now the landscape is packed with supermarkets and shopping malls. The workers changed their tools with baskets and their salary for credit cards.