Looking Out - Limited Edition 1 of 15 Print

I am Maria Papazova. I was born and I live in Sofia, Bulgaria. When I was a teenager I wanted to become a zoologist and to work with wild animals, I even applied for a summer job at Gerald Durrel's zoo on Jersey island, but these opportunities were beyond the iron curtain for us at the time. So I studied computer sciences instead and I found a job in an international bank as an IT specialist. About the time I gave up the dream of travelling around the world and studying wild animals, I discovered photography and it has been a personal passion for me ever since, helping me express and preserve myself amids the insanity of the corporate world . I find inspiration almost everywhere – in the magic light works on landscapes, in the eyes of my loved ones and in the eyes of strangers, in the transforming power of music, in the ever changing beauty of the sea, in the stolen glimpse through a window, in a detail taken out of context, in the side glance that rearranges reality… Although I am currently using a digital camera (since 2016) I still take a photograph only when I feel certain that I have done everything for it to require minor (or no) corrections. I am self-taught and it took me a long time to dare show my photographs first to family and friends and then to participate in a few photography contests. I have one award - Second place in a National Geographic Magazine competition (local selection) in category Nature and I have one exhibition in The French Cultural Center in Sofia.