from the 10th International Plovdiv Photo Salon the best author selected

“Travel is an essential part of my life. I have been very keen on travelling since a young age, and graduating geography in high school helped me a lot to develop a passion for discovering new places and cultures. As a holder of a bachelor’s degree in tourism management and a master’s degree in business management, I was able to fulfil my dreams, and working in the hospitality business gave me a lot of opportunities to travel and live abroad. During one of those trips at the end of 2011, I also developed a passion for photography, particularly urban and street photography, as I was based in London at the time, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Ever since, photography has been my big love and an integral part of my life. In the past many years, I have been travelling to over 40 countries, and I have developed a recognizable style of travel urban photography. Monochrome is the best way to express what I see in color on the street; a black and white image often has more to say than a colored one, and I try to use that in the best possible way. I love to combine human presence and interesting architecture; I also love to use low shutter speeds and narrow apertures. I love minimalistic images, and I seek the perfect composition until perfection; persistence is the key. The pictures shown in the TTA exhibition were taken during different trips in the past couple of years. “Chess” was taken on a rainy September day in Livorno, Italy, in 2022. I spent a good hour in the pouring rain, waiting for an interesting person to pass by, and even though there were not many people out, I still managed to make a decent shot. “Under the Spotlight” was taken in Rome, Italy, in October 2022. “Elevated 3” is part of a short series; the first two images were taken in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but this particular image was taken in a famous museum in Paris, France, in the spring of 2022. “Who are you?” was taken during the same trip to Paris, but in the subway, which is very beautiful. It was during the COVID-19 pandemics, therefore the masks. “Lost in Translation 2” was taken in Krakow, Poland, also in a very interesting modern art museum, at the end of 2021. “Scream” was taken in Warsaw during that same trip to Poland. As an artist, I always strive to seek a different point of view in everyday situations and to do something different that will hopefully be remembered.