In the month when we celebrate the Day of Slavonic Alphabet and Bulgarian Education and Culture, two stations of the capital’s metro, Sofia University and Vasil Levski Stadium have become the venue of an exhibition with photographs of great Bulgarian writers. 

Entering the subway, visitors can enjoy retro photographs of famous though somewhat forgotten masters of the Bulgarian language; they are welcome to experience the charm of the time when in their studios photographers sought special angles and lighting to present a person in the most interesting way. Old time photographers would often arrange special compositions for group portraits – like the one featuring the contributors to the notorious literary journal Zlatorog /1920-1943/. Founder and editor of the journal was famous critic Vladimir Vasilev. Contributors to Zlatorog included some outstanding writers such as Yordan Yovkov, Emilian Stanev, Elisaveta Bagryana, Angel Karaliychev and many others. Seeing interesting photography in the metro, passengers could look for more information about the journal that used to be part of Bulgaria’s cultural prosperity in the period between the two world wars.

The exhibition with posters is held under the patronage of Sofia Municipality. The original visuals are property of the National Museum of Literature. Its organizers are the National Academic Library and Information System / NALIS / and America for Bulgaria Foundation. The photos have been digitized with funding from the international EuropeanaPhotography project.

"The project’s idea is to collect photographs with artistic value made in the first hundred years of this art’s history, more notably from 1839 to 1939.” said in an interview for Radio Bulgaria Ekaterina Dikova, project manager at NALIS. “Actually, the Bulgarian involvement was quite successful because we have collected about 16,000 images provided that our commitment was for 15,000. The project involves 19 organizations from 13 European countries. Recently the exhibition Our Yesterday opened in Pisa, Italy, including Bulgarian entries. We expect to see the display in Bulgaria this fall."

The 16,000-strong Bulgarian archives contain photos provided by 15 institutions / archives, museums, libraries / and by three private collectors. Themes in it vary from ethnography and education to civic and professional associations. War is another topic that is present with photographs from the Russo-Turkish War of Liberation /1877-78 /, the two Balkan wars /1912 and 1913/ and the First World War. The collection goes across from changes in the urban and rural landscapes through portraits of famous people: monarchs, politicians, military and men of culture, to ordinary Bulgarian families. Until 15 June the photographs of Bulgarian writers will be put on display in the rest of the Sofia metro stations.

English version: Daniela Konstantinova