Text and Images by Nikolay Bratovanov © 2021

Solely inspired by a beautiful and frosty mid-November morning, “Sofia 1980s” is a photography project that happened completely spontaneously. There was no preparation, no plan, no scenario – just taking my film camera and getting on my bike for the usual morning ride.

Of course, it must be remarked that the idea of creating a ‘now-and-then’ photography shootout that would produce ‘past-looking’ Sofia landscapes (and eventually compare them with their present-day counterparts) has been around for years. In fact, those who know me as a photographer (or who happen to have checked out my already published photography projects) will be aware of my specific interest associated with capturing ‘vintage’ scenes that seek to represent certain environments (most likely urban) as if they were photographed let’s say 30, 40 or 50 years ago. This magical, atmospheric, even eerie ‘time-travel’ effect that a two-dimensional image can have upon the observer is something that I find quite fascinating, and something that I have been recently inspired by.

In most of the cases, though, it takes a lot of research and preparation associated with finding the right spots (streets, objects, buildings, monuments, etc.) that might be suitable for such ‘throw-back’ photography purposes. During this particular morning, however, I felt like doing it spontaneously, relying entirely on my cycling route, which features plenty of potential ‘time-travel’ objects and scenes. Luckily, I’ve been riding along this route for long enough to know precisely what is there and what is not. In other words – I had been doing my research on the go.

The name “Sofia 1980s” came up as a result of what I would eventually see on the Fujicolor C200 film that was used for the improvised shootout (and developed soon afterwards). Considering the age of the man-made photographed objects (all of them completed during the socialist past of Bulgaria) and assimilating the vintage appearance of most of the captured scenes, I assumed that 1980s would be the most appropriate decade for the project’s title (still, “Sofia 1970s” would also have been plausible).

Even though I haven’t seen it myself at that time, I have come across many urban landscape photographs that depict Sofia throughout the mentioned decades. Whether because everything was still relatively new (and hence in good shape), or maybe the fact that Sofia was far from the population that it is today, or just due to the idealistic/utopian approach of how things were presented back in the communist regime – I have always been impressed and inspired by the city’s overall appearance shown on these old photos/postcards/booklets/etc. Everything just seems to have been so well-arranged, clean, and in harmony (I don’t really care if it’s just an illusion), especially when compared to the over-populated, mixed-style, traffic-jammed, worn-out and often characterless environment of our present-day capital.

That being said, „Sofia 1980s“ can be considered as an attempt to escape this ‘sad-but-true’ chaotic reality, an ambition to present the city in a much more peaceful and charismatic light, and last but not least – as a reflection upon still not so distant, but yet rather different in both positive and negative ways times.

GALLERY