Vesselina Nikolaeva

Border landscapes are emotionally charged spaces, especially those of the former Iron Curtain. In 2004 Vesselina Nikolaeva (born 1976) was granted permission to photograph the Bulgarian-Turkish border. This volume presents her photos alongside archival images of border guards.

Kissing, drinking, text-messaging, cramming, waiting, dancing, smoking, graduating. This is the story of 20 students in their final year at one of the elite high schools of Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2005. In photographs and quotations, it documents how the first post-Cold War generation matures in "an adolescent society"--modern-day Bulgaria being only 17 years old when the work was made, just like the students. Nikolaeva introduces the project with the following words: "When I was in the sixth grade, I suddenly heard one day that we didn't have to wear the red scarves anymore. We didn't have to wear the uniforms either. From now on, the new way to address our teachers was "Mr. and Mrs." as opposed to "Comrade." In the years that were to follow, the history books would be re-written too. That was the end of Communism in Bulgaria. It was 1989 and I was 13 years old.