I was born in Ukraine, into a family of Bessarabian Bulgarians. I came to Bulgaria in 2018 to study and stayed — it had felt like a second home long before I actually lived here.

Photography wasn't the plan. I was studying graphic design at the Academy of Arts in Plovdiv and photographing the things I meant to sketch later. The sketches never happened. “I fell in love with the process” is still the only honest way I can explain it.

My father was an ethnophotographer — he documented folklore and village life in Bulgaria and Ukraine long before I picked up a camera. He is serving in the Ukrainian army now. I think I inherited the habit of watching quietly from him.

These days I work in fashion and reportage, and I'm happiest backstage. I don't direct people. I wait for them, and the camera comes with me everywhere so that I never miss the waiting.