About Elska Chisinau (Moldova):

This fifty-second book in the Elska series takes us to the capital of Europe's least visited country, Moldova. Such a claim to fame is the ideal bait for us, sparking our intense curiosity and hoping we can persuade our readers to explore along with us.

Chisinau turned out to be a super lovely town, one that really should attract more tourists. There's the elegant city centre, full of stately architecture and a vibrant restaurant scene, and just outside it, there's a wealth of brutalist buildings to marvel at. Culturally, there are two main sides of Moldovan life: a Romanian one (the country was part of Romania before 1940) and a Russian one (owing to large migration of Russians following Moldova's annexation into the Soviet Union after 1940). These two sides appear friendly to each other but not exactly harmonious — if there is one recurring theme that showed up during our conversations with our Chisinau elskans, it's how these sectors remain separate, cleaving the already marginalised LGBTQ+ community even further by internal divisions.

Inside Elska Chisinau, writer and photographer Liam Campbell introduces the city through encounters with several of its local gay men. There are two key components to the Elska experience: photography and story. For the photographic portion, Liam shares honest and intimate images, including the men he met here. They were photographed in their city streets, dressed in their own style, and also photographed at home, not dressed at all. For the story portion, Liam shares a narrative derived from extensive diaries kept during his visit to Chisinau. This includes details of moments shared with these men, conversations they had, and a little bit of daydreaming inspired by them.

‘Elska Chisinau’ features nine chapters, dedicated to the following local elskans: Alex K, Dumitru S, Artiom C, Vasile M, Denis B, and Nicolae I.

We also recommend ordering our companion publication, ‘Elska Ekstra Chisinau’, available separately or as part of the ‘bundle’. Inside you'll meet four more men, introduced through more photographs and stories. You'll then also get to see various outtakes from the Moldova trip, including literally hundreds more pictures of all our Chisinau subjects. Finally, you'll find a special feature on how we chose our cover art and you'll get to see a few of our famous (or perhaps infamous) reader selfies.

Details and Specs:

‘Elska Chisinau’ is 170mm x 240mm (approx 6.7 x 9.4 in), 164 pages, full colour, sewn-bound, offset-printed, with 280gsm textured coated coverage paper and flaps that hide an Easter egg and soft and sexy matte 115gsm internal paper.

Delivery and Format Info:

Print version: Elska ships from Germany by Deutsche Post first class mail. All orders come delivered in discreet and sturdy packaging.

Bundle: Includes the print and e-versions of ‘Elska Chisinau’ and the e-version of ‘Elska Ekstra Chisinau’. A download link for the e-versions will be emailed within twenty-four hours of purchase; the e-format is PDF which is viewable on iPads, tablets, and all sorts of devices.