Lydia Kulekova is the third-place winner of the Modern Times photography contest, organized by Public Republic in 2008. She was born in 1978 in Sofia, Bulgaria. She has completed two photography courses (1997 and 2002) and has participated in dozens of art shows and solo exhibits. Some of them are:
2007
Sleeping Things Exhibit, Photo Cult, Bulgaria
Show participation, 17th Nude Body Exhibit, Photo Forum, Bulgaria
Photojournalism award and participation as a photographer and a model, Bodygraphy Plain Air, Bulgaria
Audience Award, Heavenly Wanderers Photo Contest, a collaboration of Photo Cult, SkyNomad Club, Inter Data Systems and Lukoil Bulgaria
Show participation, The Best of Photo Forum 2007
2008
Third Place Award, Modern Times Photo Contest, Public Republic
Show participation, Nature and Self Photo Contest, Photo Forum, Bulgaria
Show participation and Third Place Award, Photo Series Division, Music in the Lens International Photo Contest
Show participation, Fantastic Images National Contest, LandSeas Photo Club, Bulgari
Award for Sofia, Bulgaria, Worldwide Photo Walk by Scott Kelby
Show participation, Second International Photography Salon, Varna, Bulgaria
Black and White Nude Photography
[Please click on each photo to view it large]
I learn. I have a lot to learn. I want to learn.
I can. Nothing is impossible. Maybe these are strong words, but they are true. The magic word is “I want to.”
I know that getting lost is the simplest thing. And the best way out is the shortest one.
I say what I think. Sometimes it’s my strongest card, or my biggest enemy. I hold onto honesty.
I write, when I type, I often switch neighboring letters or syllables. It happens when I speak, too. It’s very funny, but sometimes it’s embarrassing, too. I am surprised that the same happens in English.
I believe that a body is the wrap of the real contents – a person. I define people first of all as people and I categorize them as strong or weak, good or bad, smart or dull, etc., and only then as men or women. The definition of the “strongest sex” can be given equally to a woman or a man, depending on the circumstances. There are difficulties and advantages for both. I believe it’s important for people to hold onto what’s important for them and follow their dreams while keeping an inner balance. The ultimate feat is not becoming someone important, but achieving and conquering yourself.
I want to travel the world. If I had a longer life to live, I would spend a few years in each city, village and place with people of different ethnicity, customs, scenery and nature. Since life is short, however, I’d be content with just a van and a plane to visit the most appealing places. While traveling, a person gets detached as a free electron from the apparently solid, safe earth and becomes small and one of many, which makes it possible to appreciate life, with all of its possibilities and faces.
I get most disappointed, or even more, I can’t stand hypocrisy and falseness.
I forgive, I am learning to forgive. Even myself.
Truth – the best antibiotic. The invincible weapon. The best choice.
A mistake is human when it carries a lesson.
Emotions – positive or negative – are welcome. They are my road signs.
I regret – there are things I regret, but I rethink and learn to accept with time. That’s why I don’t share them – I don’t want them to define me.
I like the word “let’s”. The color green. The taste of salt. Children. Stripes. Wind. Sea. My name. Giving gifts. Studying people. Loving.
I can’t stand… I don’t think there is anything I can’t stand. There are things that irritate me, but they are mostly whims or prejudices.
My favorite book: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach. I Am a Dream by Dafina Georgieva-Ronia.
My favorite movie: Amelie. I sometimes use it to test people. The next candidate for a favorite film is La Strada by Fellini.
Music – it gives me the opportunity to get immersed in myself, in harmony with my chosen environment. I relate to the sweetest places in space.
Love is the most important, maybe the single engine of life. The only reality.
I smile when people around me smile. Even in my dreams.
I feel noble jealousy of those who are not jealous.
I don’t know what lies ahead. And I don’t want to know. That’s the nicest part – the surprise.
If I want, I can turn the world around.
I dream of… having a tiny bookstore when I grow old; a workshop where I can have magical books for childhood safeguarding, provoking an eagerness for active life and the return of hope and love, besides other little things for our imaginative soul: carnival costumes, music boxes, kaleidoscopes, treasure-boxes, old photos, distortion mirrors, changing-ink pencils, dried flowers, mint candy, seashells on a thread, glasses with water reflections, boxes for aromas and dreams, and many others charms.
I would sit in front of the frosted window, on the rocking chair next to the fireplace in the winter, with a kitten on my lap, hidden behind my glasses in my memories. I dream of having an airplane, a paraplane, a horse, a motorcycle, an underwater camera.
And now seriously: I would like to work in the area of advertising, design, applied arts, to combine my artistic talents with photography so that I can achieve an artistically and technically polished product that’s a blend of ideas and craft.
When I dream I feel free.
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