site.btaActress Simona Halacheva Showcases Documentary Photography from Japan

Actress Simona Halacheva presents documentary photography in the exhibition Thank You, Japan! at the Sofia City Library, the Culturama Festival said. The show will run from January 7 until January 17.

The photographs were taken during a two-week stay by the author in Japan, where she explored local culture, architecture, food, people and art. The locations include Tokyo, Kyoto, Okayama, Nara, Osaka and the island of Naoshima.

A significant part of the photographs were shot on film with a Mamiya C330, a Japanese camera from the 1960s. The black-and-white images are hand-printed on handmade light-sensitive paper as a gesture of respect for the traditions, skills and dedication of Japanese craftspeople and artists. Other photos were taken with a digital camera, also of Japanese manufacture, and are presented as prints on fine art paper.

The main idea of the exhibition is to intertwine through photography two seemingly different but harmoniously coexisting worlds – the world of traditions and crafts and the world of the digital and technology, the organizers said. Creative workshops will be held as part of the exhibition with the participation of the Japanese cultural centre Kokoro.

Simona Halacheva was born on September 4, 1989, in Sofia. She studied acting and photography in her home city. In 2012, she made her stage debut at Theatre Sofia in the musical Jump! by Zdrava Kamenova, directed by Kalin Angelov.