Critical contextualization of my work - inspiration talk - part 2

After talking about the stunning work of Zdravko Yonchev in the previous post, I turned to other projects about abandoned places. I am aware that shooting abandoned and decaying buildings is really popular worldwide but to get the critical context (and the necessary visual information) to do the Beyond the Postcard mini project, I needed to go local. 

I came across the Abandoned Bulgaria Instagram feed and loved the idea that maybe someone else before me has done the thing and hence I can use the information they have stored (the way I did with the Fading Sofia project). So I hurried to check out their Facebook.

I found loads of images and even more followers. 

Fig. 1 

The images that are available on their feed are not the thing I am looking for and do not carry the same amount of  emotion as the works of Yonchev. Abandoned Bulgaria aims for a more documentary approach - snapping a pic of what is there and adding an Instagram filter at most. 

This is partially explained by the fact that the project is maintained by a group of enthusasts, none of which is an actual photographer. 

They rarely give titles to their works and even less often they give some information about the place (unlike Yonchev who had researched the back story of all his subjects and takes the care to include it in some of his posts, at least). 

Fig. 2

So, even though I love the idea of having someone else doing the research for me, I think that the thing I aim at is much more closer to the works of Younchev than to this documentary style. I aim at showing the emotion of the place, at least that's the idea - not to have snapshots but images that tell stories. 

References: 

Abandoned in Bulgaria project Facebook page, available at: https://www.facebook.com/exbulgaria [accessed 20 March 2018]

List of figures:

Figure 1 – ExBulgaria -  untitled, 2017

Available at:

https://www.facebook.com/exbulgaria/photos/a.1508796799149620.1073742002.779299025432738/1508796915816275/?type=3&theater [accessed 20 March 2018]

Figure 2 – ExBulgaria -  The old shoe factory in Dobrich town, 2017

Available at:

https://www.facebook.com/exbulgaria/photos/a.779350662094241.1073741837.779299025432738/1973841419311820/?type=3&theater [accessed 20 March 2018]