Balkan Bath

Balkan Bath

Bulgaria | Monday, January 14, 2013 | 5 photos

My name is Tanya Atanasova, a Bulgarian born artist, currently living in Belgium. In 2005 I graduated in ceramics at The National Academy of Art in Sofia, Bulgaria. Following a stay as an exchange student at Sint-Lucas Art Academy in Gent, I have permanently settled in Belgium. These days I live in Antwerp and primarily work as a painter and teacher.

Photography has changed my entire life: my worldview, my way of thinking, my artistic activities… although in my childhood it was completely absent. I was born in a small Bulgarian town in the middle of the Balkans. Bulgaria was still a communistic country. As a teenager I experienced the very difficult transition from communism to capitalism. My family did not have any interests or traditions when it came to photography or even taking family snapshots. I don’t have one single picture of myself as a baby. Photographs were a rare thing in those days, and I have fond memories of long winter evenings, looking at the big album my grandmother had. After assisting a Belgian nature photographer in Bulgaria I started to get a real interest in photography and although I’m by no means a professional I never go somewhere without my camera…