They are clad in genuine animal skins weighing 30-40 kgs. each, wear horns and all kinds of different-coloured charms. They sometimes hide their faces behind fearful masks, at other times they show their weather-beaten faces. Their pictures were taken in their natural environment, high up in the mountain. They are the people safeguarding the traditions of the masquerade rituals, and the characters in the photographs by Evo Danchev.

“I have been absolutely obsessed by masks and kukeri these past three years,” says the photographer who has been travelling the country in search of colourful characters for his project called “Guardians”.

“I myself am greatly influenced by tales, legends and myths, they were my favourite books in my childhood. That is why I have been trying to recreate the kind of atmosphere as if these characters are part of a fairy-tale and their photographs are from a mystical world. Kukeri and survakari, hidden behind masks and costumes step over the threshold of our homes to become intercessors between our world and the mystical world of the spirits, providing for our own well-being,” photographer Evo Danchev says. In January 2021 photographs of his kukeri appeared on the pages of the National Geographic magazine in an article dedicated to masquerades in this country. Now, Evo is focusing on the connection between kukeri and livestock breeding – and it is a very old and a very powerful bond!

A great many of the participants in these ritual games tend livestock to this day, and use their hides for the costumes. The fur-length of a billy goat can reach one metre, and the price of a first-class costume – up to 20,000 Leva (EUR 10,000), Evo Danchev says. While he was looking for characters for his project, Evo met Radi and Ivana. The father and his young daughter have continued the tradition of the chaushi – as the kukeri are called in and around Razlog. Ivana was just 4 when her father dressed her up in animal fur and so she became a chaush. Since that day the little girl has never missed an appearance in the kukeri games, and she dreams of becoming a first chaush one day. One freezing winter day Evo Dahcnev went to their farm, snuggled between the snowy mountains of Rila and Pirin. “The idea of the photo session was to illustrate the bond between the generations and how customs are handed down, the road they cover to reach us in our day from time immemorial,” Evo says and adds:

“The bond between Radi and his daughter Ivana is very strong, their love is so beautiful! The power they possess, the power of these places can only be the power of guardians of the tradition. Bu they are not the only ones. There are so many parents and children who have been safeguarding this tradition all over Bulgaria, and that is an incredible thing! In this story there is one more interesting character – their billy goat, an animal whose fur is typically used in the kukeri costumes. He was in perfect form for the making of the costume. But the animal had made friends with the little girl Ivana, and she forbade her father from using the animal for such a purpose. So, the billy goat got lucky, and he too became part of our photo session,” Evo says.

Evo Danchev’s shooting season coincided with the kukeri festivals which starts on 1 January all over the country, and which ends around mid-March. It is during these noisy and colourful festivals that the photographer finds the characters for his “Guardians” project. On the first day of 2022 he is in Razlog for the Starchevata carnival, to take photographs of the chaushi. Some of the photographs will find a place in the album he is working on for popularizing Bulgaria’s masquerade traditions around the world.

Photos Evo Danchev