Although photography wasn’t always a big part of my life, I began recognizing the power of this medium during the nine years of my travels around the world while working on board cruise ships.
Back in those days, the equipment was minimal, but the purpose was big – I wanted to develop a visual diary of my life, to have a record of my experiences, to be able to go back in time and “visit” the places and people that changed my life. And this is precisely what photography is to me – a visual record of life and emotion in a given moment in time.
I realized I had a true passion for photography when I began recognizing objects, people and sites beyond the typical tourist attractions, but I didn’t pursue it more seriously until I enrolled in college. The more I learned about the process of photographing and developing visual stories, the more I appreciated the importance and meaningfulness of images for others; it wasn’t just about me anymore.
During my college years I took on different projects – some for personal reasons, others as part of classes and some even related to my job at the time. While I worked on a variety of photographs – from landscapes and ads to portraits and documentaries, I realized that I had a true passion for documenting people in their natural setting, I wanted to be out on the streets and to grab a hold of those little and often unseen moments in space and time.
Although photographing people could be a difficult task, especially for a shy and quiet person like me, I believe there is something very powerful about capturing a moment in the day of someone’s life and sharing it with the world. It gives a depth to the meaning of life, it can change perceptions and understanding of people, it can evoke strong emotions and can even bring about change on both individual and societal levels.
Denitsa Yotova 