It Doesn't Show (2021) | HERBARIUM COLLECTION

Martin Atanasov

40x40x10 cm, box,photographic object, photographic paper 200gr

The Herbarium became a playground in which I was able to react and capture.
In the box there is a short story, illustrated trough a photographic artifact. The space and the form of the project gave new layers to the context of the story.
HE: when you look at these islands you could see a cloud, kind of thick and looking dirty cloud,but the air around is not heavy..
While he was telling the story about the islands, а man was walking towards us. As he was passing us , he looke closely and said out loud : “ We are sick of faggots like you !”
We cross the street quietly, which he switched continuing:
HE: So I was telling you about these islands...
I decided to interrupt:
ME:Sorry to butt in your story about the islands, but what do you think about homophobia in Bulgaria?
HE:Homophobia?!..
ME: Yes, don't you think what it just happened is some sort of homophobia?
HE: I don't know. .. I didn't feel such so far - with me – you can't tell. It doesn't show.

Martin Atanasov (born in Sofia, Bulgaria, 1991) is a visual artist based in Sofia. He graduated in 2014 from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), specializing in Photography. His work spans the fields of photography, visual anthropology, and the photobook as an artistic form. In recent years, Atanasov has developed a series of long-term projects focused on the intersection of body, identity, and visual narrative. He explores the possibilities of the photobook as a space for intimate research and collective memory, often working with archives, fragmentary storytelling, and experimental visual editing.
His first solo exhibition, "Research on the Cut-Out", presents visual studies gathered over seven years. The series approaches the queer body as territory, action, form, constraint, protest, landscape, collage, political and collective space. His practice engages with personal and social themes, investigating how the body can be a site of tension, transformation, and visual resistance.