Ivanka and Mariana, Bourgas, 2003 [from "Mechkar"]
© Albin Biblom
Mark McKnight pointed me to the fantastic work of Albin Biblom. I particularly like his project entitled Mechkar, which is an intimate documentary of Bulgaria’s last dancing bears and their owners. As Biblom’s statement describes the situation,
The Roma tradition and profession which has passed on from father to son for more than a thousand years is now coming to an end in Bulgaria. The animal rights organizations Brigitte Bardot Foundation (Fra) and Vier Pfoten (Aus) has built a bear reserve outside the town Belitsa, south of Sofia, where the dancing bears will spend the remnants of their lives. The bear owners are compensated with approximately 2000 Euro for letting their bears go to this reserve.
Visit Biblom’s website to see this and other work by him.
One Comment
September 30, 2008 – 5:21 am
I like your journal. Very interesting. Thank you for the good work. I wrote my comment here, as that photo of Ivanka and Mariana made me think of the first car I can remember that my family had. It was a red Zhiguli 2101 (something like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Lada_zhiguli_2101.jpg) Sorry for talking too much, just that photo brought up pleasant memories. Take care!