I am an artist and photographer from Bulgaria.
To me photography is an exploration of the mind. A kind of fiction, offering a glimpse of a co-existing reality. A way of seeing a world floating between unspoken dreams yet-to-be and the endless nostalgia for the time that has never been, with a surreal motif. Since photography is born in a split-second, I find it being the perfect medium to show a fraction of a supposed reality. A fraction that does not describe, but merely suggests. A fraction that has no beginning or an end, but is bound to have an afterlife, long and rich as the viewer’s memory.
The two main subjects I explore are women and flowers, as flowers are often associates with women and feminine. My woman is a silent inhabitant of an alternative place that provides an escape from the passage of time. She is both strong and fragile. The center and only a fragment of something greater; a suggestion for something more. Flowers are usually associated with women because of the idea of new life; a rebirth after the winter. Yet since they fade quickly, flowers are also linked with death. In my photographs a slice of this birth-to-death shift is suspended in time.
Selected exhibitions
"Pilot", PxP Contemporary, online exhibition, group show, 2019
"Photo Akademica 2017". Official opening of Month of Photography, Sofia, 2017
"Photo Akademica 2016. Review of photography in Bulgaria 2001-2015", The National Palace of Culture, Sofia, 2016
Group show, Alfa Art Gallery, New Brunswick, N.J, 2015
Group show, Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria, New York, 2015
Group show, Alfa Art Gallery, New Brunswick, N.J, 2014
Group show, Gallery of Union of Bulgarian Artists, Sofia, 2014
"Canon. Photo of the Year - Bulgaria 2013", National Art Gallery, Sofia, 2014
"20 Years New Bulgarian University" - an exhibition of selected works marking the anniversary of the university at the National Theatre "Ivan Vazov", group show, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2011
Awards
2020 - Budapest International Foto Awards - Non-Professional; Fine Art – Flowers; Silver
2020 - Budapest International Foto Awards - Non-Professional; Fine Art – Other; Bronze
2019 - Fine Art Photography Awards - Non-Professional; Nature; 1ST PLACE WINNER
2018 - Fine Art Photography Awards - Non-Professional; Abstract; Nominee
2017 - Tokyo International Foto Awards - Non-Professional; Fine Art – Abstract; Honorable Mention
Px3 People's Choice awards - Non-Professional; 1ST PLACE WINNER - Fine Art - Digitally Enhanced, 2015
Px3 2014 - Non-Professional; Bronze Winner - Fine Art, People Category, 2014
Publications and Media
"Studio Sunday", Create! Magazine, online interview, 2019
#GenreCrushWednesday Veneta Karamfilova, Genre: Urban Arts, online publication, 2019