Being locked up in prison cuts a person off from every aspect of everyday life, including intimacy with a partner. But if a couple are married, in may countries the inmates are allowed are allowed conjugal visits from their husband or wife. In 2007, Romania changed their penal laws to allow such visits and built bedrooms in their prisons for the liaisons to take place. Romanian photographer Cosmin Bumbut has travelled his country taking pictures of conjugal visit rooms in prisons, like this image of Iași prison, which he took in 2011 . Romanian photographer Cosmin Bumbut has spent the last few years photographing these rooms at 35 different jails across the country. He has now published the collection of images in a new exhibition called Camera intimă (The Intimate Room), which has been shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards in the Architecture section. Cosmin told FEMAIL that the Romanian prison system has changed a lot over the last decade. He said: 'Once Romania joined European Union, in 2007, the prison system was reformed; the biggest change was to introduce the right to private visits.' Aiud prison, 2008 . A woman's prison in Târgșor, 2011 . Bistrița prison, 2011 . He continued: 'A prisoner who is married has the right to receive, every three months, a two-hour private visit which takes place in a separate room inside the prison compound.' The project developed by chance while Cosmin was taking photos for a separate collection on prisoners in the Romanian city of Aiud in 2008. He was taking shots of a man and his wife during a conjugal visit and realised that the rooms would make an interesting series on their own. Gherla prison, 2011 . Arad prison, 2013 . Oradea prison, 2013 . Cosmin said: 'In 2008, I took the first photos inside the intimate room with an inmate and his wife after their private visit. 'I realised that these rooms represent the institutionalisation of love, the cancellation of tenderness. 'In 2011, I started photographing the intimate rooms systematically until 2014. 'I shot the rooms and some absurd details and also some footage from the point of view of the inmate lying on the bed.' Chilia Veche prison, 2013 . Juvenile detention centre in Tineri, Bacău, 2011 . Satu Mare prison, 2011 . Botoșani prison, 2011 . Cosmin added that although many prisons have got to the effort of making the rooms appear relatively warm, they are all tinged with sadness. He said: 'In this cold space, with information about STDs and safety hung on the walls, two people meet their loved ones, after months of waiting.' Cosmin's photography work can be found at en.teleleu.eu and www.bumbutz.ro .
Romanian photographer Cosmin Bumbut photographs conjugal rooms . He has taken pictures of the bedrooms in 35 prisons across Romania . Exhibition has been shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards .