• Lora
    “When I want to be alone, I close the door and the kids know. We are going to renovate this place, so we can have a common room, but still everybody will have a place of his own.”
  • Aleksander
    “We are 6 persons living in this small apartment. I used to work as a photographer and this attic was my atelier. Now it has become my place, a sacred place. Here I can read, I can be myself. My wife is sometimes jealous, she needs to speak.”
  • ”
  • Todor
    „Finally I live alone. I got rid of all the intruders.“
  • Nevena
    “After my husband died, my daughter suggested that I should live with her. I didn’t wanted. This is my place. I am afraid of leaving the apartment, so I seldom do. I am never bored or lonely, I always find something to do around.”
  • Julka
    “I haven’t gone out of this apartment for nearly 2 years now. I can’t. My sons are far away, out of Bulgaria. Despite that, I am never alone. I have wonderful neighbors. They help me and keep me company. Everyday I take a walk on my terrace, a few times.”
  • Ljubomir Miltschev
    Ардженто би могъл да мине за сребролюбец, ако всъщност не го владееше страст към антикварното сребро. С натежали от малки сребърни предмети джобове, той подрънкваше като православна икона в обков.
  • Kica
    “I am Kica, and I am the Judaist queen.”
  • Anastasia
    “I can’t live here. There are too many photographs of dead people.”
  • Spaska
    “I am searching for the kindliness. Purple is the color of kindliness.”
Elena Geroska

Traces

"Traces " project is an attempt to enter the personal space of different people by photography. For most animals there is specific space fthey feelas their own. They mark their territory and they feel threatened when someone intrudes. Just like animals and humans aim for privacy and I wanted to get to know the private world of different people, so I decided to look into their homes, where they feel like themselves. I first started to peek through the windows, then I walked around the blocks. It took long time before I found the courage to knock on the doors. At first I had ne nowhere. Then my curiosity grew, I wanted to come in and see what's behind the doors.  After a while I started to stop people in the street,  to talk to the doormen and the sellers in the shops, gradually I began to find people willing to let me in at their homes. Noticed for my coming, they had time to be prepared. Some carefully arranged their homes, others just let me inside. I really hope that everybody will feel the “present absence” in this photographs. Because   between what is visible and what is invisible is the space that is truly personal.

Еlena Geroska was born 1990 in Skopje, Macedonia . She graduated in Photography in the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA) in Sofia . She has had solo exhibitions in Bulgaria, Macedonia and Austria. Her work appeared in Vice, Max, Capital Light and other leading Bulgarian magazines and the book Shot by Kern by TASCHEN.