Exposure Festival: Homage to the Motherland

Being in the artist community for a while now, I have a conceptual side to my photography. One of the things that drew me to the craft was the hands-on process of developing film. I still remember making a little box camera and going into the darkroom to develop the film rolls and expose the paper sheets individually. It was quite the process, but it was like Christmas morning; you couldn't wait to see what you had on the page.

Today, I am taking you on a personal journey. Last year, I had the privilege to go back home. I am from Bulgaria. Half my lifetime is spent there, and the other half here in Canada. My foundations and roots are Bulgarian, and revisiting the places from my childhood was nostalgic. Hear the stories and bong over old family photographs. Nostalgia overtakes me when I look through the photos, and they are forever captured to carry on those stories with them. As an homage to my upbringing and life, I decided to take my little film camera to document those monumental locations. The film is "ancient" and so amazing to have handy. I sound like a photography traditionalist, but the medium is the message. Everything is set as I remembered it; just like film, it is everchanging and constant. There is something more concrete to holding a film photograph and re-experiencing the frames as you look at them. I still feel the salty air, the cool breeze on the seashore, the sand on my hands and the distant chatter amongst rowdy friends in my native language. Nostalgic.