CONTRASTS
Contrasts is the theme of the eighth edition of the festival. Exhibitions, discussions, lectures and workshops invite the viewer to a broad dispute on Contrast not only as a notion in photography but as it can be perceived within our communities, in the beliefs of different generations and in the contrasts between classic and modern photography.
For eighteen years now Yanka Kyurkchieva” National Association Academy of Photography has been investing efforts in support of the Bulgarian photographic community, establishing and storing archives of Bulgarian photographers’ works, publishing albums, catalogs and books, presenting photographers and their art in galleries and artistic spaces.
One of the most emblematic events of the festival is the exhibition of the prominent Bulgarian photographer Yordan “Yuri” Yordanov. Seventy-one images, developed and copied by the author himself and kindly provided by “Sergio Podzhanela Foundation, will be exhibited in the SYNTHESIS Gallery in the period June 20 – July 18, 2017.
For the first time this year Yanka Kyurkchieva” National Association Academy of Photography assumes the role of a publisher and besides exhibitions, will present the book “The time when I lived” with photos and texts by Nikola Stoichkov, thus commemorating the 100th anniversary of the author.
Prominent Bulgarian journalist Svetlana Bakhchevanova and the established by her FotoEvidence platform are partners of the Month of Photography for the fifth time. In the framework of the festival they will introduce the winner of FotoEvidence Book Award 2016 Daniela Zalcman and her project Signs of Your Identity featuring a distinctive artistic approach to documentary photography.
The newest photographic project by the Canadian author Nathalie Daoust Korean Dreams is a complex series that probes the unsettling vacuity of North Korea. Piercing its veil with her lens, these images reveal a country that seems to exist outside of time. The images are a brave fusion of documentary approach and specific attitude to exposure.
The series titled National Still Life is the exhibition by the Hungarian photographer Monika Fischbein who will attend the festival on invitation by the BALASSI Hungarian Cultural Institute and will hold a workshop devoted to “National Identity’s Impact on Creativity”.
In the first week of June, the Red House Center for Culture and Debate will be dominated by young Bulgarian authors. We will start with Kalina Brailsford’s “Autobiography of Photography” Project where the author will use light-sensitive photo paper coated with black wax symbolizing the contrast between light and dark both in photographic and psychological aspect. A very special exhibition where the viewers can and will be invited to take active part.
For the seventh year we will present the group exhibition “Revelation” of students from the Master’s Programme in Photography of the New Bulgarian University.
“The Photographic Original and Artistic Practices” is the title of the exhibition of the Master’s Programme students of the National Academy of Art which will present works incorporating classic photography processes and various artistic techniques with contemporary creative practices.
We will be reminded of the noble photography processes and particularly, of the wet collodion process, by the original works in the exhibition “Light and Silver” of Kalin Kostov.
Nadezhda Pavlova
