“The Bulgarians” is a bilingual photo book. Probably in order to avoid accusations of presenting the Bulgarians in black and white only, one seesvarious shades of predominantly grey color. Radio Bulgaria has previously presented photos by Anthony Georgiev, showing us more about the times of Thracian and Roman Bulgaria and that is why we asked him if the new book showed what the contemporary image of Bulgaria looks like.

“No, the previous were documentary books but this isdocumentary art, which aims to show ideas, situations and conditions through the means of black and white photography.”

The book’s cover looks poetic with its whiteness and the high-contrast figure, but does not give a clue about the images that some would define as crooked, but others may use the more extreme wordof “bestiarii” to describe what is seen. As the text reads (in addition to the author's work, there is a preface by culturologist Georgi Lozanov) these are people who will never make the news headlines (except perhaps in the crime section). Those are people whom we call electorate and who thanks to the mechanisms of democracy select organs of authority. The idea, according to the author is "to point out the differences, but to look for common characteristics." Identity is one of these characteristics and its absence or crookedness, according to Anthony is the root of other crises that our society has been experiencing lately. In the past quarter of a century Bulgaria did little to create its new identity.

"Identity is something individual; it cannot be imposed on you. We live in the XXI century and no longer wear ancient folk costumes, butat the same time we are constantly fed with images presented to us as identity.”

According to Anthony, the lack of critical thought among Bulgarians is a great problem.

"Unfortunately, the ability to think not just in black and white categories seems to be diminishing these days. At the beginning of the 90s things seemed a bit different to me.”

Another issue is the dilemma of "freedom vs security," instilled in people’s minds. Such ideas can have different repercussions, reaching up to the level of nihilism. Like the only face looking at the camera during a friendly banquet.

"These people are not interested in the surrounding world. They show absolutely zero interest in what is happening around them. With the exception of just one man who looks right at you as if saying: ‘This is what we are but nothing would have changed if we were different.’”

The book is a kind of a reflection of a work written 60 years ago by Robert Frank (with a foreword by Kerouac) - "The Americans." In this sense, one can say that the dream referred to in a satirical song from the beginning of 90s called ‘How are we going to catch up with the Americans?' has already been achieved. The author says watching the real truth has a much greater effect on Bulgaria than travel brochures. Just like the shepherd, for whom Bulgaria is a piece of blue sky that he holds in his hand.

English version: Alexander Markov