Интервю с мен за БНР

 

Казват, че животът е низ от случайности. Аз срещнах своята, когато бях на двайсет и вече снимах от три години. Не съм я търсила, просто случайността сама ме намери. Просто реших да се регистрирам в сайт за #фотография и да намеря други себеподобни. Едно от първите неща, които публикувах в този сайт, беше молба за съвет и обяснение към един кадър.

Обаче вместо обяснение, там срещнах Идиот (има си име, човекът, но интерес на GDPR-a ще скрием самоличността на този човек под псевдоним). Та, Идиот ми заяви, че съм „тъпа фуста и трябва да бъркам манджи на печката, а понеже нямам нито подходяща техника, нито умения за редактиране на снимки, нито знам кое как се композира, просто да оставя фотографията за големите момчета“. Не беше от най-окуражаващите неща, които искаш да чуеш ако търсиш помощ и съвет, особено ако тъкмо си повярвал, че снимките, които правиш, може би заслужават да видят бял свят извън картата памет на апарата ти.

След тоя случай направих онова, което всяка уважаваща себе си жена прави, когато я нервират - ревнах с глас и прекарах три дни потънала в самосъжаление и станиоли от шоколад. А после реших, че ще докажа на Идиот, че много сериозно е сбъркал адреса.

Останалата част от интервюто, на линка по-долу :)

https://bnr.bg/post/101511938/bistra-stoimenova-stanah-fotograf-zashtoto-mi-kazaha-che-ne-me-biva

19 мои кадъра в изложбата СТАРИ БЪЛГАРСКИ СТОЛИЦИ И СРЕДНОВЕКОВНИ КРЕПОСТИ

 

Още една изложба с мои кадри в нея ще може да бъде видяна тези дни. При това напълно безплатно, защото е онлайн. Поне за нас, българите :)

Този път фокусът е нещо, което ми е слабост - културните обекти. Който ме познава в реалния живот, е наясно, че дрънкам като латерна за исторически факти и събития. В тази изложба, заедно с колегите Йордан Йорданов, Иван Василев, Лилия Йотова и Димитър Калиновски от Асоциацията на професионалните фотографи, сме събрали красиви кадри на известни и красиви български крепости, както и снимки на всички стари български столици или онова, което е останало от тях. Кадрите бяха събрани в клипче, заедно с малко текст към всяко едно място.

Това клипче ще бъде част от електронната изложба, създадена с партньорството на Българския културен институт – Москва, със заглавие СТАРИ БЪЛГАРСКИ СТОЛИЦИ И СРЕДНОВЕКОВНИ КРЕПОСТИ, която е посветена на годишнината от създаването на българската държава. Годишнината е свързана с датата 09 август 681 г., когато по време на VI Вселенски събор в Константинопол, за първи път е споменато името на държавата България. Ако сте гледали филма "Хан Аспарух", мисля че една от първите сцени в първата част показва точно това. Дори са цитирали дословно историческите извори (о, чудо!) :)

В тази изложба успях да се проявя, защото имам включени не един и два кадъра, а цели 19. С кадъра от статията долу, стават 20.

Текстът във видеото, както и в статията долу също е мой, така че и като културолог-писател ме има :) Клипчето ще бъде публикувано в YouTube в понеделник, 09 август и тогава ще споделя както руската, така и българската версия. Руският превод е направен с помощта на хората от БКИ. Същото клипче ще бъде прожектирано в културния ни институт в Москва като част съвместната програма на БКИ и Националното туристическо представителство "Научете повече за България". Не знам за вас, обаче аз съм горда, че мои кадри (някои заснети като част от Culture Crossroads, а други доста по-стари посещения на въпросните исторически места), ще представят българската история :)

А докато излезе клипчето, прочетете увода към изложбата ни в статията по-долу :)

https://bci-russia.ru/news/908/?lang=BG&fbclid=IwAR3cDnqLjRBI0o8Rl1UMxsYRvo3_R8g6PCnDzsms084Uy5CgfKB81CAxvF8

Весел петък!

Associate RPS distinction gained

🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬 (🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧⬇️⬇️⬇️)

Днес искам да ви разкажа една история - за това, че когато обичаш да правиш нещо, ще получиш възнаграждение. История за това, че трябва да следваш знаците. 

Всичко започна с едно момиче, което имаше два свободни часа в претъпкания си университетски график, една реклама и едно случайно цъкане. Така, на майтап, попаднах на реклама за обучение във Falmouth University и реши да напише "фотография" в полето за търсене. Кой да знае, че това е най-престижният университет за фотография във Великобритания? Място, където не приемат току-така и хората чакат да имат 20 години стаж в бранша, преди дори да се опитат, ако нямат завършена бакалавърска степен по фотография. 

Обаче мен ме харесаха - заради качеството на кадрите ми - и буквално ме убеждаваха да се запиша, въпреки моите постоянни обяснения, че нямам пари да платя таксата. Нямах бакалавърска степен по фотография и не бях учила фотография изобщо допреди това. Обаче те ме приеха, заради добрите кадри, при това директно за магистратура. Дори се сдобих със стипендия. 

Две години по-късно станах член на Кралското фотографско дружество на Великобритания, най-престижното обединение на фотографи там, с повече от 150 години история. Тогава бях единствената българка там. Все още е така. 

В понеделник, най-накрая получих и сертификата, според който Кралското фотографско дружество ми дава титлата Associate RPS - втората по значимост от общо три. За да я получиш, се минава през изпит, който не е шега работа :) 

В момента съм единственият фотограф в България, който има едновременно титла и сертификация и от Европейската федерация на фотографите, и от Кралското фотографско дружество на Великобритания. И всичко това, само на 29 :) 

А всичко започна с едно седемнайсетгодишно момиче, един компактен апарат и много желание - да докаже, че може и я бива. Желание да разказва истории в кадрите и да показва на останалите други светове. 

Така че, обичате ли да правите нещо, не се отказвайте за нищо на света. Понякога човек просто трябва да следва знаците и те ще го отведат там, където трябва да бъде.

🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

Today I want to tell you a story – one about how when you love doing something, you are bound to be rewarded for your efforts. A story about how you should follow the signs. 

It all started with a girl who had two idle hours amidst her densely packed university schedule, an ad and a random click. This is how, by chance I came across an ad about education at Falmouth University and decided to write ‘photography’ in the search field. Who would then know that this is in fact the most prestigious university for photography in the whole of UK? A place where they don’t simply accept anyone who applies, but there are people waiting to get 20 years of experience in the field before even trying to apply if they lack the BA in photography.

But they took me – because of the quality of my images – and literally needed to convince me to enrol, because I kept telling them I don’t have the money to pay the tuition fees. I didn’t have a BA in photography and had never studied photography anywhere. But they wanted me in, because of the good quality images, and I enrolled for a MA directly. I even got a scholarship in the process. 

Two years later, I became a member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, the most prestigious association for photographers in the UK, an institution with over 150 years of history. Then I was the only Bulgarian there. It is still the case. 

On Monday, at last, I received the distinction certificate with which the RPS awards me the title of Associate RPS – the second highest rank out of three. To get this, you undergo a rigorous exam :) 

At the moment, I am the only photographer in Bulgaria who has distinctions by both the European Federation of photographers (FEP) and the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. And all that, at just 29. 

And it all started with a 17-year-old girl, a compact camera and the drive to prove she is good. The desire to tell stories through her images and to show new worlds to other people. 

So, if you love doing something, never ever give up! Sometimes you just need to follow the signs and they will lead you where you have to be.

Color palette

Color Palette

Sighisoara old town, Romania

A walk through the alleys of Sighisoara in a gloomy and rainy afternoon. You must have seen this shot here and there, if not - now's the perfect time to stop and read.

The Crossroads point: 

Sighisoara is a really strange place. Mainly because the tourist industry advertises it as the birthplace of Vlad Tepes (or Vlad Dracula, as popular culture knows him). The town has nothing to do with vampires, though. It is a bit creepy and has an unique Medieval look but apart from that, nothing else. 

What makes it so unique is that Sighisoara is located in Transylvania - which means it is in Romania BUT the town and its population are actually NOT Romanian at all. In fact, you could hear German speech in the streets (but not the German you study at school, I can assure you). People there speak a Saxon dialect which remained intact for several hundred years. Even though the German-speaking population is a minority, it is proud of its roots and isolates itself against the Romanian 'intruders'. 

The reason behind that lies in the history of the place - in the 12th century the Hungarian king invited Saxon craftsmen to settle in the area in order to defend it against invasion (I suspect that the 'threat' was the Bulgarian kingdom across the Danube, but that is a topic of another post). The craftsmen did settle and became so prosperous, they managed to get autonomy from the king in the 14th century. To defend themselves, the guilds joined forces and each of them built one of the towers of the imposing citadel (all towers are 7 but now only 5 or 6 can be seen). 

Throughout the centuries, Sighisoara was regarded, along with the neighbouring Sibiu, as 'the gate to Transylvania' and it's strategic position dictated the change of rulers. The place was exporting goods to half of Europe and crafting other goods for the other half. 

The houses, though picturesque, are not a dream to live in - small, crowded, as within any citadel where space is the most valuable commodity, lacking sewers etc. They were restored (to the state you see on the pic) due to sponsorship (I think it was the Romanian government BUT I am not quite sure). 

The town has 3 names - Segesvar (Hungarian), Sighisoara (Romanian) and Schäßburg (German) - and now the predominant population is Romanian (around 70+%). Each of the minorities calls the town by the name in their own tongue :) 

The place is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1999 :) It's deemed one of the most beautiful medieval towns (still inhabited, that is) in Europe and the moment you set foot there, you inevitably look for a knight in shining armour. 

More information on what to do in Sighisoara, on these websites: 

https://sighisoaraonline.com

http://romaniatourism.com/sighisoara.html

New Year, New Plans

Hey everyone! 

I know the blog has been dormant for quite some time BUT I promise to change things in 2020. 

This post should have appeared a month ago, but for objective reasons, the new year for me starts a month later. For starters, I would like to thank everyone for taking your time to be by my side throughout this difficult period. Thank you and for continuing to follow me on my journey in the world of photography!

Last year I started with some pretty serious plans and I have to admit that 2019 was packed with a lot of events (most of them were quite interesting, with one or two horrid exceptions). A lot of things happened (such as becoming a Master of Arts in the field of Photography and getting my degree in Cultural Studies), I visited many places (for some I have shared some info, for others - not yet). However, there were plans that could not move out of the drawing board (I am only one person, after all, and the day is only 24 hours).

So now is the time to share what I intend to do this year.

In 2019 Culture Crossroads was left in the background (not because I don't have something to share, but because I was pretty busy creating the images on location) so in 2020 I'll try to have more things to appear like on the page, and also on the blog and website of the project. About that, a little later.

The first and largest of the new things is my modification to the 365 day photo challenge. Since I doubt being able to take pictures absolutely every day in the new year, I invented something different.

There is another option of the photo challenge where one shot should be done every week, a total of 52 images. However, this was seemed too restricting to me, so I created the 52 week triple challenge.

The idea is that every week there will be three alternative topics and depending on my opportunity to shoot, there will be between one and three photos, depending on my mood and inspiration that week.

The list of topics can be downloaded from my website in case anyone wants to join :) I will announce the topics each Monday and whoever wishes can share their images in a comment under the post. Photos will also be posted on my blog as well as on Instagram.

Ironically, last year the challenge ended exactly in week 5 (because my busy schedule became even busier). Therefore, this year, we will start straight from week 5 :)

Another change is that more photos and videos will appear on the Culture Crossroads project page - both videos from the places and behind-the-scenes footage. However, to be able to see those in due time, you will have to follow the project page and my YouTube channel.

I have planned a series of videos for this page, this time for the fieldwork in travel photography, as this genre takes out a huge part of my time. As usual, there will be options in Bulgarian and English :) I hope you'll like it :) Generally, this was the plan last year, but obviously I will do this one so now's the time.

The second project is linked to Dmitry Glukhovsky's Subway Series (Metro 2033, Metro 2034 and Metro 2035, in case anyone is interested). More about that when the project starts. There will be lots of pictures again and a lot of work to be done.

The Title? Metro 2020 :)

Finally, I am currently developing a mini photo project that is directly linked to shooting places from old photos. The Target? Old Sofia. Whoever managed to visit my exhibition in may 2019 has already seen some of the images, but I plan to keep going. For the fans and followers of the page, I will start sharing the images I already have :) The project video presentation can be found here.

I wish all of you a 2020 filled with much success health and smiles!

Happy Saint Nicolas' Day! The recipe - part 2

Hello, everybody!

In the previous post I talked about the tradition behind the celebrations on 6th of December. In this post, which is going to be way shorter, I'll show you the recipe for this year. As you remember the fish is always a carp so only the other ingredients vary. In case you don't remember or you haven't read the previous post - here is some info:

So, the fish should be a whole one - not cut in pieces and when you buy it it should be with it's scales and all the organs inside it. The idea is that the scales bring in money and the whole fish symbolizes prosperity. Then, when you clean the scales, you bury them together with all the bones of the fish somewhere in the garden. Tradition says that you should fill the fish with rice - again the money connotation - and walnuts. Since you are supposed to be fasting before Christmas, St. Nicolas' day is one of the few occasions when you can eat fish - i.e. meat. Nowadays it is a wonderful time to get together with the family. 

The carp from last year but this one we are having the same recipe

Ok, you saw the idea from the previous year - radioactive St. Nicolas' day carp with rice and turmeric sauce - that recipe I'll give you another time. 

The recipe this year is a bit different - we again have rice and walnuts and a carp but it looks different:

It is a common carp stuffed with rice, walnuts, raisins and leek and puree of creme cheese, spinach and leek.

You'll need:

1 carp - around 2 kg.

3 pieces of leek

250 g. rice - white normal rice

100 g. raisins

100 g. walnuts

1 jar/packet/ whatever they sell them in your country/ of creme cheese or cheese and a lot of butter - around 250 g.

coriander - fresh - put as much as you like

black pepper

cinnamon

salt

water

cherry tomatoes - if you want to copy the flowers from the picture

How to do it?

1. OK, you'll need to cut the leek into rings and then fry it in some oil (choose the type - olive oil will be perfect but all other types will do). Then you add the raisins and the walnuts to the leek.

2.Then you add the rice and the spices - the black pepper and the cinnamon - again - put as much as you like in there.

3. So, now you have to leave it to get the rice boiled a little - not over boil it because when you stuff the carp with it and bake it it will look like a very unpleasant lump with no particular ingredients. So you boil it for, say, half an hour and you proceed to the stuffing procedure.

Stuffing of the carp

Here you'll probably need an assistant - to hold the fish steady while you stuff it with the mixture created during the previous steps. Let's however, go over some things you do BEFORE that:

1. Clean the carp - that means all scales and intestines (to do that cut the carp open and cut out the intestines you find in its belly). DO NOT throw away the scales - they have to be buried in the yard with the bones to bring good luck :)

2. Rinse the carp with cold water to get rid of the blood and clean the belly.  

3. Stuff the carp - have someone hold it open for you and you put the stuffing in. Don't worry if the stuffing is much more than the carp's belly can hold - you just put it around it in the pan/pot you'll be using to bake it in. So, after you stuff it you have to sew up the opening so that the stuffing doesn't get out during the baking process. You'll need a big needle and a strong thread to do that. 

I don't have pictures of that because I was the assistant - you see, you can't hold a camera if both your hands are around the belly of a fish.

Baking

1. After you stuff and sew up the carp you place it in whatever you'll use to bake it it - it should be big enough for the carp to lie on one side. 

2. You put all the remaining stuffing around the carp and add a bit of water - 1/2 liter or more - depends on how much stuffing you have left.

3. Put it in the oven for around 40 minutes - when it's ready it should look like this:

The spinach/leek/cheese puree

This one is the tricky part. 

So for that you'll need:

1 piece of leek

500 g. of spinach

250 g. of creme cheese (in case this doesn't exist in your country - get the softest white cheese - Feta will do - and a lot of butter and put the two into a blender)

1. Clean the spinach and cut it as if for salad. Cut the leek into rings and fry them until they show some sign of getting cooked. 

2. Put the cheese and get the blender ready - it would take a lot of time to get the creamy texture you are looking for.

3. If you are fan of fancy-looking food in you dish try this;

Get some shapes you use for cutting cookies and fill them with the puree - don't forget to put some foil underneath so that nothing leaks out.

Put the forms into the freezer for half an hour - AT MOST - I left them there for a day and they froze.

Use them as decoration.

Since I had mine frozen I used flowers made from cherry tomatoes to make up for that. They are easy to make - you just start cutting the petals from the top without cutting them out fully. When you're done with the whole tomato and spread the petals - you have a wonderful flower.

Enjoy! If you do the recipe, I'll be glad to see a picture and to read your comments on it :)