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Story November 8, 2014

Yana Paskova hosts @NewYorkerPhoto's Instagram

Country:

Bulgaria
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Media file: screen_shot_2014-11-07_at_4.28.22_pm.jpg
English

Project

Bulgaria 25 Years After Communism

A look at the intended—and unintended effects—of democracy on Bulgaria, a nation still undergoing...

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Hello, this is NYC-based photojournalist @yanapaskova posting from Bulgaria, my homeland until the age of 12, where I’ve returned each year for a visit. Follow me this week as I bridge Bulgaria’s communist past with photos gleaned from family albums, to its current state of democracy 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall (the anniversary being Nov. 9th.) The Communist party trained its youth early; membership was a requirement for every schoolboy and girl. None of my family members were communist by ideology, but abstaining from party activities pre-1989 meant heavy social stigma, marked dossiers, sharply diminished employment opportunities, and at worse, imprisonment. This is a picture from my elementary school years, showing my classmates and I (second from right) as “pionercheta,' or pioneers, with red ties, and a younger 'chavdarche' with a blue tie. The labels and tie colors signified the level of advancement through the children’s Communist Party.
A row of ubiquitous apartment complexes in Bulgaria's capital Sofia, many in shoddy condition, inside and out. Bulgaria is still the poorest, most corrupt nation in the European Union, its post-1989 hopes wilted by political corruption and inaction, high crime rates and skyrocketing inflation. The ennui etches a permanent path across the average passerby's face, intensified by a landscape of rotting architecture, joblessness, and a vast population decline. Follow me this week as I bridge Bulgaria’s communist past with photos gleaned from family albums, to its current state of democracy 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This project was supported by a grant from The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Photo by @yanapaskova in October. #easternbloc #bulgaria #decay #berlinwallanniversary #1989 #pulitzercenter
A ripped election poster, glued to an empty post office in Kanitz, a mostly abandoned village in Western Bulgaria. Of approximately 50 houses, only 3 are inhabited--for a population total of 6. Twenty-five years after the arrival of democracy to the country, only 49 percent of the public turned up to vote, discouraged by political corruption and inaction, high crime rates and skyrocketing inflation. Bulgaria has the most extreme population decline in the world--mostly due to post-1989 emigration, and visions of severe structural and industrial decay are becoming increasingly common across the country. There are so few people of childbearing age people here that population statistics project a 34 percent decrease by 2050, from 7.7 million to 5 million.

Documentary photographer Yana Paskova launches her Pulitzer Center project on The New Yorker's Instagram feed. She'll be posting images of Bulgaria 25 years after the fall of communism. Bulgaria is still the poorest, most corrupt nation in the European Union, its post-1989 hopes wilted by political corruption and inaction, high crime rates and skyrocketing inflation. As Yana observes, the ennui etches a permanent path across the average passerby's face, intensified by a landscape of rotting architecture, joblessness, and a vast population decline. You can follow along at the @NewYorkerPhoto on Instagram or the Pulitzer Center Field Notes tumblr.

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