ROOFS OF SOFIA

Photographer Bistra Boshnakova has equal success in portraying politicians, football, drama, and crime scenes. Over the past 10 years, she has been among the most famous photographers in Bulgaria. Her photos frequently are on the front pages of newspapers. She works for the Bulgarian News Agency, BTA, and although she captures the decisive goals at football matches or rancorous debate in Parliament, Bistra Boshnakova feels most at home in the theatre auditorium . “The theatre was my first love in photography. Whenever I'm in the theatre auditorium, nobody is paying attention to me. It is precisely then, when no one is paying attention, that it is the time to shoot.”
The idea for the exhibition “The Roofs of Sofia” was born in conversations with friends from the theatre. Almost as if she was photographing theatre productions or actors, Boshnakova began to follow the play of light on the outlines of Sofia roofs. “The streets are my daily life but the horizon - the roofs and the space above them - are something that does not look the same every day. I chose roofs because of the challenge. Photography has the unique ability to transform flashes into eternity, to preserve the moments that will never be repeated.”
Her first day of shooting was on the roof of the Ministry of Transport – the lone tall building in the very centre of the city. Bistra was astonished by the sight that unfolded before her eyes, “I saw nothing beautiful! And I had to shoot. At this point, all I thought was: ‘You've got a lot of time, you will find nice views somewhere’. When getting on to that roof for the second time, I already knew that beauty can be found in everything. In the end, two of the photographs in the exhibition were done precisely from this terrace. In addition, the history of the building was researched, thus creating the “drama of the Sofia Skyline”.
“A roof is equal to a boundary. A boundary between our daily lives, and our thoughts that we hide from others and that is just for us – and on the other side is all the rest – freedom…”