Sofia, Bulgaria - Final Major Project
Arash, 12
Displacement and Isolation
With Bulgaria’s continuously shrinking population combined with increasing numbers of economic migrants, walking around the city of Sofia gives one an intense feeling of displacement and isolation. I travelled to Sofia to find out more about the refugee crisis and to visit a charity football match organised by a non-profit organisation, Student Aid Drop. The project aimed to explore and communicate the lives of the migrants living in the city and their feeling of dislocation.
Alongside the issue of population, the Aleppo bombings of 2016 left many without safe housing and thousands were forced to flee their homes and begin new lives elsewhere. This work visually explores the displacement and isolation felt by the refugees living in Bulgaria and their struggle to integrate into a society that continues to reject them.
The project was shot entirely on medium format film, featuring a mixture of portraiture and the barren landscapes of rural Sofia. Combined with the addition of a self-made Cyrillic typeface, the documentation blurs the lines between cultures and questions our sense of place on Earth.
The charity, Student Aid Drop, was set up in 2016 at the time of the Aleppo Crisis. It is a non-profit, student led organisation. So many citizens were killed and had to flee the country for their own safety. Many scattered and found their way to Greece and Turkey, as well as Bulgaria. The first year of the charity was spent providing aid to the three camps in Sofia, donating clothes and provisions where they could. The following years have been focused on integrating refugees into the Bulgarian society as unfortunately there is a huge divide between the refugees and Bulgarians. Events like the one I attended are held now and again, such as organised trips out of the city as well as fundraisers such as the football tournament in question.
The Final Book
“You can’t even rely on the police here because they’re also quite discriminative.”
