"Together for a while" - an exhibition for millennials in Bulgaria

published on 2/3/24 11:05 AM

Photo: facebook.com/gallerysynthesis.bg

Until April 2, Sofia residents and guests of the capital can visit a curious exhibition. The Synthesis Gallery presents the photo book of the young documentary photographer Denislav Stoychev under the title "Together for a while".

In the period between 2010 and 2016, which coincides with his last years at the high school in Yambol and the beginning of his studies in Sofia, Denislav invariably photographed his immediate surroundings "of friends and their friends", creating a kind of portrait of his generation.

Called millennials or Generation Y, these are those born between the mid-1980s and the late 1990s.

"We didn't live through communism, and maybe that's why we're not as rebellious as those who grew up before us. We're less introverted and obsessed with social media than the generation after us, but we still stand up for our own comfort zones. This is our transition from childhood towards maturity, which also coincided with the uncertain end of the Bulgarian transition," says Denislav Stoychev.

For him, as for most representatives of the Y generation, coming of age is a period of constant search and travel between "here" and "there" - between the big and the small city, between Bulgaria and abroad, and photography becomes his "shield, pass and salvation" - we read in the foreword of the photo book "Together for a while".

In 2022, Denislav's project was presented at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Bratislava as part of the Month of Photography. The exhibition in the Sofia gallery "Synthesis" also includes an accompanying program, including a theatrical-photographic performance with author's texts, a meeting with the author, etc.