site.bta"Lifelong Photojournalist" Exhibition Offers Different Perspective on the Profession

The exhibition Lifelong Profession: Photojournalist was opened at Sofia’s Pressphoto Club on Thursday. The event is part of the “Week of Photography in Ancient Serdica” festival and features works by Georgi Panamski, Ivan Stoimenov, Viktor Giltyai, Rada Petkova, Rumyana Chapanova, Ivan Grigorov, Lyulin Stamenov, Georgi “Johnny” Georgiev and Georgi “Goshore” Tsvetkov. The exhibition is supported by Sofia Municipality.

Speaking at the opening, media expert and Editor-in-Chief of BTA’s LIK magazine Georgi Lozanov said that photojournalism is one of the most exciting and adventurous professions, because it tells the story of the world and of events, and often shares the fate of its own subjects.

“This exhibition can be called a photo-report from the reverse side of photojournalism. From the reverse, because the photojournalist is usually invisible—standing behind the camera—whereas here, the gaze is focused on the photojournalist,” Associate Professor Lozanov added.

He explained that the exhibition offers a different perspective on the profession. The photographers aim to capture the joy of life, the joy felt by people who have lived fully and have the wisdom to appreciate life. According to him, some of the photos radiate humour and vitality. “These photographic jokes demonstrate photography’s ability to make light of things,” the media expert noted.

“We should also say that this exhibition has been designed in a way that the analogue era greets the digital era—showing that analogue photography has by no means lost its significance or its place in the history of the profession. In a sense, this is the territory of photography’s classics,” Lozanov said.

Among those attending the exhibition’s opening was Blagorodna Zdravkova, Deputy Mayor of Sofia for Culture, Education, Sports and Youth Activities.