Nikola Borissov for the first time

Nikola Borissov 

"Svilena is happy"
Actress Svilena Kidess

Vanya

Nikola Borissov is 27 years old and lives in Milan, Italy (or Sofia, Bulgaria).

Street and portrait photographer that travels a lot for Vogue, Maxim and many other great names, I know his wonderful work since my "first steps" in the fine art world. He's one of my favorite photographers, a great one full of a creative passion for love and beauty.

Reading his diary with an endless pleasure, I always found we have a lot in common : our way to watch the "civilized" world, our love for joy and hapiness, our need to make something to make the world better, and above all, our so deep vocation to which we give our entire life... totally, without any concession...

So, it's a great honour and a privilege to welcome such a great artist.

Deya I

Actress Svilena Kidess

" I was born in Bulgaria in 1980. In 1999 I moved to Milan when I graduated in Political Sciences and International Economics.
During my studies I became obsessed with photography and dedicated my life, soul, passion and emotions to it. Through photography I learned how to see, I opened my eyes and saw the raw beauty of the world, that is all around us, sometimes hidden or distorted, but still there ; I merged myself with the perfection of the moment, of the beauty, of nature, of people. Photography let me breathe freely."

Svetle for Maxim










Gabriela Barros

All his passion from his diary (two years ago) :




"Obsession"




" Life is a really strange thing. I mean, really. You never know what might happen tomorrow. Or after an hour. Fascinating, isn't it ? But at the end, life is beautiful. That's what I wrote about last night in my main blog (it's in Bulgarian, I don't have the mental resource to write so much in English).

Everything is strange, beautiful, colorful, infinite. And the world is just so big, so strange, so... so much of everything. And I want to capture it all, to admire everything, to penetrate everything. I want to capture the soul of things, the meaning of being. And the only instrument for me is my photography. An image can tell more than thousands and thousands of words could ever do.

Things are undescrivable, but... feelable ? And the perfect photograph is still out there, waiting for me to see it and capture it. Click. The perfect moment, the perfect subject, the perfect meaning. The essence of perfection... I've always tried to achieve it, in everything I do, even before discovering photography's charm and becoming obsessed with it.

"Bodygraphia workshop VI"

" There's so much to see, so many things to do, so many places to visit, so many people to meet, so many perfect moments to contemplate, so many stories to hear, so many stories to tell, so many things to be inspired from, so many moments you want to last forever... Life is beautiful, yes, but so short.

O Sonho - "The Dream"

"Svilena II 2"
Actress Svilena Kidess

" And I am already 25, and completely blank. Unformatted. I haven't achieved nothing. I have been nowhere. I am like a white piece of paper, waiting to be written on.

Sometimes I am nowhere, and yet everywhere. I don't exist, and yet I am everything. I do nothing, and yet I dream of doing so many things. And I am like the zephyr (what a beautiful, tasty word... zephyr zephyr zephyr), like the desert wind, uncatchable, untouchable, unseen and unseenable.

I am one with the heart of the Earth, the soul of Gaya, with the essence of it all... and yet I am continiously trying to capture it.

I am a Chevalier de la Lumière, a Knight of the Light... And my eye is my sword. You know, actually photography is a very philosophycal thing. Teaches you to see things."

Nikola Borissov in backstage

Nikola Borissov

“Cet obscur objet du désir”

“Jenata dnes” (”Woman today”) magazine, Oct’08

Viktoria Yovcheva@Ivet Fashion
Styling : Djina Sheovska
Hair and makeup : Iveta Petrova
1st assistant and backstage photography : Ivan Manchev

Published :

On stage :

And my favorite since I know Nikola, member of UdA since 2008 :

Svilena Kidess, actress

"Don't smile !"

"Yes we can make something", written by Nikola Borissov

Nikola Borissov

"How is it possible ? I mean, really, how is it possible that the mankind willingly reduced itself to this ? The fascinating process that reduces the human being to a buying unit ?"

Published January 11, 2010

Révision today

Il suffirait de moins de 4% de la richesse cumulée de ces 225 plus grosses fortunes mondiales pour donner à toute la population du globe l'accès aux besoins de base et aux services élémentaires, alimentation, santé, éducation.

"Gucci, Fendi, Pepsi and a blue hat"

"Life by" A tribute to Jan Saudek

"The Children of the Ghetto I"
(Istanbul)

Today more than 90% of the human beings are poor and starving, while the other 10% live in an incredibely opulence they don't even see, most of the time crying and dispressed, swallowing Prozac as candies to forget their so sad "misery"...

We have to change our world ! Yes, we can do it, step by step, one by one, because all begin inside each of us, with a little more love.

We have to face the reality of our stupid world. We have to understand the diabolic madness of those who "govern" our lives (read again Huxley). And Nikola Borissov does it each day of his life, with love and compassion. Bravo l'artiste !

This evening I was having my dinner in front of the TV. Ravioli with cream, tuna fish and olives. And my daily triple Screwdriver and some Davidoff Lights. And then it hit me, again. I am sick of it. I am sick of the West. I am so sick if it that it makes me want to vomit my bowels thru my ass.

"Delightful"

How is it possible ? I mean, really, how is it possible that the mankind willingly reduced itself to this ? The mindblowingly stupid commercials that are bombing us with all the time ? The flashy, empty, pointless images that the Westerners are basing their lifes upon ? The fascinating process that reduces the human being to a buying unit ?

Buying, selling, economics, new products, new trands, ins and outs of season, advertising, PR, smiley faces, shiny teeth, stock exchanges, futures [oh God, do I adore futures !!!!], the new spectacular toothpase, the newest cell phone, soccer players and supermodels, hollow role models, whoaaa, we’re so lucky to be part of it, to be able, God, to be able to buy all these really useful things, to be able to eat our dinners in front of the TV set looking at the latest, never-seen-before-level-of-stupidy reality show.

Aren’t we the luckiest, happiest people on this planet ? With our secure, nothing-to-be-afraid-of, 1-hour-in-the-underground-to-get-to-work lifes ?

I am fascinated by the way the Western society is becoming more and more automated, freedomless, shiny and happy.

It makes me oh so happy, that I just might go out and buy something. Spend my hard-earned cash on the newest anti-dandruff shampoo, with a never seen before formula. I don’t need it, but the lady in the commercial seems just so happy about it and shiny and flashy and persuasive.

Or I could become gay just for the fun of it because it’s so cool, because it’s so in this season, because I am seeing it on MTV every fucking day. Or, if I’m still eleven, I can use my dad’s gun to shoot to death some classmates. Or I could willingly volunteer for my daily dose of brainwashing, doing nothing more but just living in the West. And pay for it. Only 11 euros a month to see all the fucking channels of Sky. Such a bargain, how could you resist ? Or if I am a 16-year old model I could go to some of Milan’s l33t nightclubs, like Holywood, Tocqueville, The Club, Casablanca, and sniff some cocain and get my tiny shaved pussy banged by a rich 50-year old dude with a rotten scrot. Or, and that’s even more fun, if I am a 10-year old boy anywhere in Europe or USA I could go to the local catholic church and get my ass fucked by the priest for free, as God’s will is.

"Change your view"

Is this what human beings are supposed to be ?
Is this the future of the human race ?

Come on, people are starving to death in Africa and Asia, in Northern Thailand and some parts of Southern Africa 30+% of the population has AIDS, BUT we have our brainless soccer players driving around in their new Porsches and if we want we can watch a really amusing TV quiz show every single evening, how cool is that ?

In the whole of Mongolia they have 80 kilometers of paved roads and the majority of the people is still living in tents (except for Ulan Bataar’s homeless kids who live in the sewers), but we have George Bush and his war on (of ?) terror and Berlusconi’s conflicts of interests.

"Louis Vuitton"
Milan, III









"H. V"

"Louis Vuitton street style,
Spring-Summer 2006 Collection"





We have MTV, boy bands, hookers, rotten moral values, shiny teeth, happy families, illegal immigrants, fashion magazines (Kate I-am-every-fucking-where Moss is wearing a shitty useless haute couture piece of crap by 10 Corso Como, shoes by Manolo (who the fuck is this and why is he so goddamn famous Blahnik), make-up by a sloppy fag for Dior, styled by some other useless human being, photographed by the happy queers Mert and Marcus), we have McDonalds and Burger King, Coca Cola, Microsoft and Novartis (oh, did I mention that they sell the medicines that slow down AIDS in Africa at prices that are three times the ones in America ?), we are politically correct [and here I am picturing some fat black women chanting ALLELUIAH, oh, Lord, ALLELUIAH], we have so many nice shiny things that make us happy.

That make us stick to our spot in the line of the buying units. That’s some proper freedom, ya know. That’s the freedom to choose between forty different types of toothpaste, as Tiziano Terzani said.

Can I squeeze in also one of my all-time favorite movie quotes ? “This is not life, this is just…stuff” as American Beauty’s screenwriter wrote for Kevin Spacey to say.

I am perfectly, crystally aware that I am not saying anything new, that all this crap is so clichè and naïve and childish and that every single homo sapiens with at least two neurons is aware of this phenomenon. But it has always made me feel sick and now that I am becoming more and more part of it, it’s just slowly driving me crazy.

Do you have any idea of the people I meet every day ? Of the common grey faces I stare at everyday in the underground ? Of the empty, useless lifes I pass by every day ? Of course you have.

How am I supposed to get rid of this ?
Where I am supposed to go to leave this behind ?"

Nikola Borissov's interview

" Keep your eyes and your senses open, try to look at everything with the eyes of a newborn, contemplate the world, it's immenselo beautiful when you start perceiving it with all your senses !"

Nikola Borissov

"Cet obscur objet du désir II"

"Exclusive preview : "Jenata dnes" magazine, Oct'08"

Dear Nikola, tell us how did your passion begin ? Young, I suppose ?

 I occasionally bought a point-and-shoot camera in October 2003 and started taking pictures of my ex-girlfriend, who was a model ; I also started going with her on shootings and taking some backstage shots. And I loved it !

Then I started taking photographs of everything I saw, mainly street and reportage stuff... The shift towards fashion photography came when I realized that I wanted to be rich and famous.

"HH III"

"KM II"





Good challenge ! Nikola, your work is impressive... Did you learn photography in a special school ?

 No, and I think it's pointless to do so !


From where do you come your inspiration ?

 I actually get inspired from everything that surrounds me, the beauty and the variety of the world we are living in...


And your favorite photographers ?

 James Nachtwey, Sebastiao Salgado, Henri Cartier-Bresson... From the fashion world : Mert & Marcus, Demarchelier, Daniela Federici.


How long could you be far from your camera without getting mad ?

 I don't know, never tried that :)

"Bodygraphia workshop VII"

That's clear. It seems outdoors shootings have your preference ? Is it true ?

 Of course, the location plays a very important part in the whole thing, it helps to create the right mood.

"D."





"D."

"KM III"




Sure. So ?

Definetely outdoor, preferebly black and white, as few light sources as possible.

Your shootings seem very organized. It doesn't mean theyr are, so what is your way to proceed ? Chaos or order ?

Total chaos ! I mean, really, sometimes I even get scared of how chaotic my work process is !


I really believed it was the contrary... A difficult question : have you some words to describe your style ?

 It keeps changing and (maybe) evolving, I am not sure if I can pin it... Maybe the keywords are emotion, passion, feeling, contrasty, retro, Parisienne... Of course, there are lots of exceptions to that.

"Glamour-ish Svilena"
Actress Svilena Kidess

You know, actually photography is a very philosophycal thing. Teaches you to see things.

A beautiful text from his blog :
 

"Bodygraphia IX"

" Life is a really strange thing.

I mean, really. You never know what might happen tomorrow. Or after an hour. Fascinating, isn't it ? But at the end, life is beautiful.

That's what I wrote about last night in my main blog (it's in Bulgarian, I don't have the mental resource to write so much in English). Everything is strange, beautiful, colorful, infinite. And the world is just so big, so strange, so... so much of everything.

And I want to capture it all, to admire everything, to penetrate everything. I want to capture the soul of things, the meaning of being. And the only instrument for me is my photography. An image can tell more than thousands and thousands of words could ever do. Things are undescrivable, but... feelable ?

And the perfect photograph is still out there, waiting for me to see it and capture it.
Click.
The perfect moment, the perfect subject, the perfect meaning.
The essence of perfection...

I've always tried to achieve it, in everything I do, even before discovering photography's charm and becoming obsessed with it.








"Cet obscur objet du désir V"

There's so much to see, so many things to do, so many places to visit, so many people too meet, so many perfect moments to contemplate, so many stories to hear, so many stories to tell, so many things to be inspired from, so many moments you want to last forever...

Life is beautiful, yes, but so short.

And I am already 25, and completely blank. Unformatted. I haven't achieved nothing. I have been nowhere. I am like a white piece of paper, waiting to be written on.

Sometimes I am nowhere, and yet everywhere. I don't exist, and yet I am everything. I do nothing, and yet I dream of doing so many things. And I am like the zephyr (what a beautiful, tasty word... zephyr zephyr zephyr), like the desert wind, uncatchable, untouchable, unseen and unseenable.

I am one with the heart of the Earth, the soul of Gaya, with the essence of it all... and yet I am continiously trying to capture it. I am a chevalier de la Lumière, a knight of the Light... And my eye is my sword."

"Svilena is happy"
Actress Svilena Kidess

What are your favorite themes ?

In my photography ? The contemplation of the beauty and the perfection that surround us, in every possible form.

Unfortunately, having decided to concentrate on fashion photography, I rarely have time for doing other things, like my beloved street and portrait photography...

Model Josefin Herrmann

 






Some words about your gorgeous models ?

 Um :) I work with some of the best agencies in Milan and Sofia and obviously I prefer booking an experienced model whenever possible, it makes it a whole lot easier. Most of the models I work with are just like any other girl with a regular job...

Actually, being a model is not at all as glamourous as it seems !

For sure ! And how do you feel at the end of a shooting ?

Happy that I've got some new nice photographs and sad that the fun is over :-)








"Bodygraphia workshop II"

"Original title : "The Birth of a Nymph"... or "A Nymph is Born", I cannot decide..."




Have you a special project, some challenges you're dreaming about in a next future ?

What about a Vogue cover ? Or the Pirelli calendar ? Only the sky is the limit.


Nice goals ! Have you published a book ?

 Not yet, but it's been some time that I am considering doing so, in fact as soon as I think I am ready with the project I will approach some editors.

Actually I am thinking of two books, one about the female beauty and one with portrait and street work.

I'm impatient to see that !... Before we leave, have you a message to send ?

 Keep your eyes and your senses open, try to look at everything with the eyes of a newborn, contemplate the world, it's immenselo beautiful when you start perceiving it with all your senses !

It's a wonderful message... And so true. Thanks a lot Nikola !

Actress Svilena Kidess