Since its discovery, photography has been a constant companion of humanity. It has become a valuable document, a reliable account of the events in human life. It has its own essential role in science, advertising, photojournalism, and communication, and it is gradually establishing itself as a significant and democratic art. All genres of photography have the potential to become art when they go a little further and convey a new concept, feeling, or message, as well as the original creative views and ideas of the artist. Photography has entered museums, become part of the inventories of institutions, and there are even independent photography museums in many places around the world.

In 2004, in addition to its existing Painting, Graphics, and Sculpture collections, the Sofia City Art Gallery also established the Contemporary Art and Photography collection. For one reason or another, enriching the collection and presenting Bulgarian photographers from different generations over the past two decades did not develop in the dynamic way we wanted it to, and so we decided to organize and present a special project, part of the gallery’s long-term strategy to build and expand a representative photographic collection for research and digitization activities, as well as to enhance our inventory with works by Bulgarian artists who shaped the visual culture of the century. Thus was born the exhibition More than a Photo. The History of Bulgarian Photography in the 20^th Century. Its goal is not only to present the development of Bulgarian photography from 1900 to 2000, but also to take us from the early studio portraits and chronicles of modernity to artistic photography of the end of the century. Included in it are over 300 photographs by more than 100 Bulgarian photographers, which construct the living history of photography as art, testimony, and personal narrative. It is structured chronologically in three sections that trace the development of Bulgarian photography—from the first studios and studio portraits at the beginning of the century, through socialist Bulgaria and photography as a document and testimony, to the last decades of the 20^th century, marked by the freedom of the artist’s gaze and the saturation of the world with images. The main focus of the exhibition is on the artistic qualities of photography, but it also has an informative side. Through it, one learns a great deal about the time in which the photographs were taken. Human stories reflect the common history of the past decades. Even photographs of a personal nature, over time, move ever further from their original function and become historical documents, revealing their artistic qualities.

The current exhibition does not aim for encyclopaedic exhaustiveness. Its priority is to show artists and works with a significant contribution to the formation of photographic aesthetics in Bulgaria, as well as to pay tribute to those who, with their camera, created the memory of a century from 1900 to 2000. These hundred years of Bulgarian photography situated on the two floors of the gallery are presented through valuable originals from personal and institutional archives: the State Archives Agency; Saints Cyril and Methodius National Library; Ivan Vazov National Library; Yanka Kyurkchieva Academy of Photography; the Regional History Museum – Plovdiv; Iskra Historical Museum, Kazanlak; Chitalishte Svetlina – 1860, Shipkа, the Historical Museum, Asenovgrad; the Historical Museum, Razlog; the Artin Azinyan Foundation; Nellie and Robert Gipson – the Gipson Archive; Martin Kalchev; Viktor Gerasimov; the Balkanski families; Georg Woltz; Lingorov–Nedkov, Kemilev, Petra Atanasova; Georgi Papakochev; Boyan Popov; Stanislav Boyadzhiev; Violeta Kyurdyan; Rafaelo Kazakov; and Rositsa Stoycheva.

To implement such an exhibition involving extensive collecting and analysis, the Sofia City Art Gallery expanded its team by inviting external experts to participate in the compilation: Ivo Hadjimishev, Katerina Gadjeva, Georgi Lozanov, Yavor Popov, and Tihomir Stoyanov, who, together with Reneta Georgieva and Adelina Fileva, have contributed with research and curatorial work.

As an institution Sofia City Art Gallery is committed to supporting the preservation of the history of photography and its establishment as an art, and to ensuring that its photographic collection can be shared with the public, researchers, scientists and artists with an eye towards future generations.