Of Time and Memory

“Of Time and Memory” is an ongoing long-term project, which started out as one thing but which turned into something entirely different as reality caught up with it in ways, I had not thought were possible. Initially, it was a personal reflection on how it was like growing up under Soviet rule in an Eastern Bloc country. It was a contemplation on how the totalitarian regime of Bolshevism came to influence not only societies at large in abstract terms but also the everyday lives of people in very tangible ways. Even 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, traces of this political climate shaped by disbelief and a lack of trust could still be found in the homes of ordinary citizens. Documenting these post-Soviet home interiors – kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms – that somehow looked frozen in time, the project sought to explore the ties between what may be termed “kitsch” and totalitarianism. As an ode to the unexpected beauty of these private spaces, I wanted to document the intimate relationship with and lingering of an aesthetic from a bygone era while also paying tribute to the resilience of people or their capacity of coming to terms with the historical shifts that happen.

I myself grew up in Bulgaria and for the past ten years, I have visited multiple other Eastern European countries with similar fates as part of the project, not the least Ukraine. And then the war broke out last February. Russia as a brutal oppressor no longer was a distant memory from the past but a new reality with global reverberations.

Overnight, the meaning of my images had changed. I knew I owed it to the people of Ukraine as much as to myself to go back and revisit the places I had captured with my camera. I feel ready to go back to Ukraine any day now, not knowing what I will find. Many of the people whose homes I photographed have fled the country, this much I know. I also know that many of the cities, towns and villages I've photographed some time ago are right now either under oppressor occupation or lay on the very front line.

The past all of a sudden has turned into a cruel new presence. A political regime once again is dictating its conditions onto the everyday lives of people. While the outcome still is uncertain, it is this very moment in time that needs to be made visible, that needs to be remembered so that it won’t repeat itself.