Dan Lecca

Runway photographer Dan Lecca is the undisputed king of the runway. He reigns supreme towering above the other photographers, a modern day Moses on the Mount, graybeard, stern and imposing. At just about every fashion show, when he walks up to the podium, the others part for him as the Red Sea did for Moses. "Dan Lecca is a gorilla in a group of monkeys" (Jason Riffe).

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He was a Rock and Roll star in Romania. His group was called Choral and was #1 in Romania in 1968. Dan left Romania in 1970. He went to Rome where his wife's parents were and worked for 9 months until they got enough money to go to the States. He came here not speaking a word of English. Lecca took a job as a short order cook and eventually landed in a textile studio as a 'man Friday', answering telephones and running errands.

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In 1976, he went to Puerto Rico for work and bought a Cannon FTB with a normal lens for $170. He loved 3 of the slides so much that he became immediately hooked. The camera became his tool to do something artistic. At first, he had no idea what he was doing. He bought a long lens and a wide lens. The camera went everywhere with him: to work, to lunch, on the streets. He had become a shutterbug. Some English clients told him he should go to the Paris Vision fabric show. He had some time to kill, so he went to a couple of shows and snapped pictures. It wasn't difficult to get into fashion shows then like it is today. Lecca met John Duka (one of the founders of KCD) at one of these shows. At the time, he was working for New York Magazine and bought some of his pictures. He also met a Texan, Terry Weir, at the shows. He offered him a job as an assistant at his studio. He was setting up to shoot something for Saks (Fifth Avenue) when Dan made a comment about the lighting in front of the client. Maybe the client heard him, because the next day, Linda Gaunt (who now works for Armani) called Lecca and offered him the job for the next month. He rented the studio from Terry.

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That was the beginning of an astounding career. Dan is shooting runway for some of the biggest newpapers and fashion magazines in the world. His client list includes: Harper's Bazaar, Allure, Town & Country, Marie Claire, The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine among others. In addition, Dan is currently the house runway photographer for many of fashion's best known designers including Calvin Klein, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Celine, and shortly Louis Vuitton. His wife is shooting for The New York Times. "Do you remember in National Geographic where you see the top monkey ruling the pack? That's Dan, he's the top monkey on the runway scene. Everyone follows his lead, he has that kind of domineering personality. It's an unwritten law that he oversees the runway scene and straightens-out any problems happening up there" (Bill Marpett).

Luminiţa Dinu-Huţupan

Luminiţa Dinu-Huţupan (née Dinu) (born 6 November 1971 in Piatra Neamţ) was the best keeper in the history of the Romanian handball and maybe the best in the world.

Luminiţa began playing handball in 1985 and she has played for CS Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea, HC Kometal Gjorče Petrov and Krim Ljubljana. She is 3 times winner of Champions League Cup (2001, 2002, 2003), 2 times winner of European Super Cup (2004, 2007), 5 times winner of Romanian First League of Women Handball, 4 times winner of Romanian Cup, Winner of Romanian Super Cup, 6 times winner of Slovenian Championship, 6 times winner of Slovenian Cup, Winner of Cup Winners' Cup (2007), Winner of Champions Trophy. She is also Vice-champion of the World with Romania in 2005.

She was declared the best goalkeeper of 2000 European Women's Handball Championship and the best goalkeeper of 2005 World Women's Handball Championship. International Handball Federation has launched this days an online poll on its website (www.ihf.info) for choosing the best all-time women goalie, Luminiţa Dinu-Huţupan leading for now. She retired in 2009.

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Gabriela Szabo

The Romanian athlete Gabriela Szabo is one of the names that made history at the Olympics and World Championships and she counts amongst the greatest athletes of the last decades. Recently retired from the sport career, Gabi Szabo remains a symbol of overpassing one’s limits as she continues to be a fighter both for her own goals and the community’s.


As a child, Szabo participated in swimming and gymnastics. When it became apparent that she wasn't going to be good enough to make the Olympics, she switched to track. At the age of 13, Szabo was discovered by coach Gyongyossy Zsolt while dominating a 600m race. She then left her native Bistriţa to train at the prestigious Rapid Bucharest Sports Club. As a 15-year-old in 1991, Szabo won the European Junior 3,000m title, then went on to repeat that win in '92, '93 and '94. She also won gold (1994) and silver (1992) medals at that distance at the World Junior Championships.


She made a smooth transition to the senior level, winning bronze medals at the European Championships and the World Cup. And at age 19, she became the youngest World Indoor Champion in history, winning the 3,000m. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Szabo finished second to Russia's Svetlana Masterkova in the 1,500m. That silver medal was a great disappointment to Szabo, who had expected and promised gold. Earlier in the Games, she had failed to qualify for the 5,000m final -- an event that was considered her best chance for a medal. At the 2000 Games in Sydney, Szabo outkicked Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan in the 5,000m to win the gold medal and erase the disappointment of Atlanta. Later in the Games, she came back to win a bronze medal in a tactical 1,500m race. Szabo has become so well-known in Romania that she finds it difficult to train at home. Instead, she has spent much of her time training on a farm near Potchefstroom, South Africa. While there, she can avoid media attention and train in relative seclusion, with only her husband/coach, her physiotherapist and cook nearby. On October 2, 1999, Szabo, 24, and her coach, Gyongyossy, 37, were married in Bucharest. They didn't make their much-rumored romance public until shortly before the wedding. Eventually, Szabo would like to devote more time to her family and less time to training. In 2004, after the contest in Birmingham, where she abandoned the race, Gabriela decided to retire. She was hardly believed. No special ceremonies were organized, quite because both the Federation and the supporters hoped that the athlete would change her mind. But Gabriela Szabo didn’t reconsider her decision. In the summer of 2006, during Romania’s international athletics championship, an official retirement festivity were organized in her honour.


The record of Gabriela Szabo: Junior World Champion for 3000 meters - Lisbon 1994; Bronze medal for 3000 meters - Helsinki 1994; Cross World Champion - team - Durham 1995; World Champion - 3000 meters - Barcelona 1995, Paris -Bercy 1997, Maebashi 1999 and 1500 meters - Maebashi 1999; Olympic Vice Champion 1500 meters - Atlanta 1996; World Champion for 5000 meters - Athens 1997 and Sevilla 1999; Winner of the Golden League Circuit in 1997 and 1999; European Vice Champion for 5000 meters - Budapest 1998; World Record for 2000 meters in 1998; Best Athlete of the World in 1999;· World Record for 5000 meters - Dortmund 1999; European Champion for 3000 meters - Gent 2000; Olympic Champion for 5000 meters - Sydney 2000.

Szabo's resume includes a silver medal in the 1,500m at the 1996 Olympics, gold in the 5,000m at the 1997 World Championships, gold at 1,500m and 3,000m at the 1999 World Indoor Championships, gold in the 5,000m at the 1999 World Outdoor Championships, and most recently, gold in the 5,000m and bronze in the 1,500m at the 2000 Olympic Games. In 1999, she was named Athlete of the Year by the IAAF, Track & Field News and Athletics International. She currently holds two world indoor records: 2,000m (5:30.53) and 5,000m (14:47.35). In 1999, Szabo swept all the 3,000m races in the seven-meet Golden League series, earning half of the $1 million jackpot awarded to athletes who remain undefeated through the series. She and Danish 800m runner, Wilson Kipketer each earned $500,000, and by the end of the year, Szabo had become the first female athlete to win more than $1 million in prize money in one year.


"Today I feel great when I walk on the street and people come and tell me « Thank you for what you’ve done». This means that my work was not in vain. This matters the most. At the world competitions I was representing Romania, which is a nation, so I had a responsibility and I didn’t want to disappoint those waiting, quite out, in front of the TV sets. When you appear there, you have a responsibility, you are not Gabriela Szabo anymore, but you are Romania. Only in grand prix it is you, but in world contests you are Romania."