27 July - 10 August 2021 - Yassen Grigorov solo exhibition
Exemplary Home is an intimate return to the roots of the documentary photographer Yassen Grigorov. By illustrating the effects of years of complex socio-political flux, he confronts his feelings of disdain towards his home country via the lens of a documentarian, returning to a landscape leaden with childhood memories. The photographer had left Bulgaria with a pervasive feeling of frustration and lack of acceptance in 2017, to pursue his craft in London.
Over the course of the last four years, his interactions with a wide variety of people from all over the world and all walks of life inspired him to challenge his feelings of shame and his preconceptions around the society he grew up in. This process culminated in his return to the areas where the effects of the socio-political climate he left are felt the hardest, to explore and examine how people live and cope with the realities of a kleptocratic government in the last European country to move away from its communist past.
The series is Yassen Grigorov’s biggest and most accomplished work yet, having featured in a multitude of online exhibitions, including In Conversation With’s Hidden Histories, The Rural by Offspring PhotoMeet, Exh 05 by Floorr Magazine, the Photograd 2020 Graduate Show, the University of Westminster 2020 BA Photography exhibition on the streets of London, Clear Channel UK and Free Range’s nationwide billboard campaign, showcasing the best works from 2020 photographic talent and perhaps most notably, winning 2nd place in the analogue works category in the prestigious International Photography Awards.
Aside from bringing the work to its subjects for the first time, the three-week event will also aim to foster discussions and pose questions to its guests, with the aim being to provoke meaningful change in the way Bulgarians treat their national identity and rural communities. It will be supplemented by a series of events and a print and merchandise sale, providing accessible editions of the displayed works to all attendees.
Yassen Grigorov is a Bulgarian-born, London-based photographer.
A first-class graduate of the BA Photography course at the University of Westminster, his award-winning practice explores the micro and the macro, championing honesty, intimacy and authenticity. His projects often go off the beaten path, and aim to illustrate how broader societal and political trends influence the lives of the little person
