• A magnificent photo of wood-carving won the jury’s hearts at “The Crafts’ Secret” photo contest.

Todor Rusinov’s The Artisan’s Hands deserved the first place in the competition and won BGN 1000. His runner-ups were Nikolay Vassilev and Stoyan Iliev, who were awarded with respectively BGN 800 and BGN 500 for the second and third places.

Last night the exhibition was opened featuring the best shots from The Crafts’ Secret –the photo contest of Ossem Magazine, UBB and Bulphoto. You can see it at the Lovers Bridge by NDK till October 26^th. The 58 snapshots were chosen among 581 photos of 218 photographers.

For a fourth consecutive year Ossem Magazine, United Bulgarian Bank and Bulphoto organize photo contests which eventually evolve into real events and, as tradition follows, culminate into impressive exhibitions.

“It was a difficult choice this year, as usual, but a very pleasant one”, Evgeny Dimitrov of Bulphoto agency said on behalf of the jury. Because of the many photos depicting pottery, for example, their number had to be reduced. “The contests we organize are really useful for the photographers taking part in them that’s why we’ll continue with the next competition over the following year, too”, Anka Kostova, manager of UBB’s PR and Sponsorship Unit, announced. “We’re looking forward to the proposals for the next topics!”, Ossem Magazine’s chief editor –Ganeta Sagova -added.

The three prized winners explained how they took their photos. “Considering the fact you’ve been taking photos for 50 years, when a contest comes up your way, it’s always easy to take a look at the archive and choose something”, Nikolay Vassilev, who took the second place, joked. In his turn, the winner Todor Rusinov shared that his profession lies in the sphere of marketing, while photography is a mere hobby for him. He took the winning photo after having found himself in an almost deserted village for a couple of days.

The ending note of the awards ceremony were the words of Dr. Svetoslav Slavchev, Ossem Magazine’s deputy chief editor for 22 years: “Initiatives of this kind show that the spirit of the Bulgarian nation is still pretty much alive, together with its culture and due to this I congratulate the organizers!”, Dr. Slavchev summarized emotionally.

The exhibition presents in an extremely picturesque and vivid way the ancient Bulgarian crafts, their contemporary aspect and entirely new crafts, which are currently making their way. Shoemaking, cartwrighting, embroidery goes side by side with tattoo-making and knit-dressing a brand new car. The snapshots are “garnished” with the engrossing words of BAS Ass. Prof. Vihra Baeva, ethnologist, who attracts the attention to the traditional crafts in a simple language, by telling unknown stories and legends, related to them.

The best photos will also be presented in the November issue of Ossem Magazine and at http://www.spisanie8.bg/.