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Students from Varna Free University Present Their Original Photographs at the ‘In Focus’ Festival
26 August 2025
Four students from Varna Free University will take part in the first edition of the photography festival “In Focus”, which will be held in Varna from September 3rd–6th, 2025. The event brings together nine Bulgarian and international documentary photographers, photojournalists, journalists, visual artists, and 35 young photographers, united under the festival’s theme “Inside – Outside View.” The festival programme includes presentations of photographic projects by guest authors, a roundtable and discussion panels open to the public, as well as three photo exhibitions that visually interpret and expand on the festival’s theme.
Among the participants in the festival programme are Ksenia Urekina, a second-year student in Graphic Design; Melih Nehat, a fourth-year Interior Design graduate; Yoanna Hristova, a fourth-year Graphic Design graduate; and Stanimira Ilieva, who recently defended her graduation project in Graphic Design.
Our authors describe their works as follows:
“A glimpse into the heart of a place that no one owns, yet everyone belongs to.” said Ksenia Urekina.
“Can the Muse be something more than a feeling, a glance, a person – perhaps an entire story, with its details and hidden pages of poetry?” – said Yoanna Hristova
“The gaze turns the periphery into the center, the border into an illusion.”– said Melih Nehat.
“The people who create a home both for books and for us.”. – added Stanimira Ilieva.
The festival will take place across three cultural venues in Varna – BNR Radio Varna – Art Salon, Photosynthesis Varna, and the Amourpha cultural and educational space. Among the highlights is the documentary project “Varna” by Bulgarian-born photographer Katerina Shosheva, as well as exhibitions by young authors who, through their photographs, reveal their personal sense of the city in which they live and study. The public will also have the opportunity to join the roundtables and discussion panels which accompany the exhibitions.
The event is organized by the Amourpha Youth Foundation, which is implementing the festival within the framework of the “In Focus” programme with the financial support of the National Culture Fund. Partners include BNR – Radio Varna, Photosynthesis Varna, and the Amourpha cultural and educational space. Admission to all events is free, and the festival aims at creating a forum for encounters between emerging and established professionals, to inspire young artists, and to encourage cultural exchange in Varna.
The participation of students from Varna Free University is both a recognition of their professional development and creative potential, and a testament to the university’s role as a source of inspiration and a platform for expression in the field of visual arts.
