Simona halacheva
street photograpy
This collection features analog photographs captured across various cities and countries using a Mamiya C330 on 120mm film, as well as images taken with my first camera, a Zenit E, on 35mm film.
flowers of my patience
This is a photographic exploration of the different stages of flowers fading and the beauty they reveal, inspired by the Japanese philosophy of the transience of life — Mono no aware.
Arigato, nihon!
А visual and sensory journey through the Land of the Rising Sun.
The exhibition features documentary photography created during my two-week stay in Japan, dedicated to exploring and experiencing the country’s culture, architecture, food, people, and art. The photographs were taken in Tokyo, Kyoto, Okayama, Nara, Osaka, and on the island of Naoshima.
14 first Encounters
One of the most extraordinary moments between two people is the instant they meet for the first time — a situation in which subtle mechanisms of perception, behavior, and self-presentation are activated, leaving a lasting imprint on memory.
“14 First Encounters” is an attempt to visually explore this moment through photography, tracing the behavior of 14 men from the world of the arts and the first impression they create upon meeting.
Inspired by Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women, I explore the hidden sensitivity of men within the context of a first encounter. I construct a sensory portrait through a series of photographs taken with analog, digital, and instant cameras — conceived as different states of time: the analog image functions as a timeless imprint; the digital reflects the speed and rhythm of contemporary life — the accelerated present; the instant photograph serves as immediate proof of the encounter itself — like touching the moment directly.
In this way, the image emerges as a process — between what remains, what passes, and what unfolds here and now.
The meeting places were chosen by the men themselves — spaces they identify with or intuitively selected, locations that complement their presence and participate in shaping their image.
Throughout the photographic process, I do not attempt to define or summarize these men, but rather to poeticize them; to observe the states that arise within the very act of encounter, the movement between revealing and withdrawing, between presence and retreat. This “silent” nonverbal information I receive is what guides me — directing my gaze and shaping the way I construct their overall portrait.
Simona Halacheva
smartphone photography
PINK
TAX
PINK TAX
Photo Installation, 2026
Textile, photographic print
PINK TAX refers to the higher prices often charged for products and services marketed to women—frequently coded through the color pink—compared to equivalent products aimed at men. The term carries strong social and feminist implications, drawing attention to the economic and cultural inequalities embedded in gendered consumer practices.
The photo installation explores this hidden economy of existence: the invisible costs women bear every day through their bodies, time, appearance, and socially conditioned behaviour. It examines the mechanisms through which the female body and face are subjected to a continuous process of correction, maintenance, and improvement. Contemporary society imposes ideals of beauty, youth, and femininity that transform personal care into an almost obligatory form of labour, demanding constant investments of money, energy, and time.
PINK TAX raises questions about the price of social acceptance and the unequal distribution of expectations placed upon women in contemporary society. Through photographic imagery and spatial installation, the work reveals how economic and cultural structures of inequality become embedded in everyday life and absorbed into personal experience.
PINK TAX was presented as part of the exhibition Night Shift, curated by Reneta Georgieva, at FemFestival, held from 26–27 June 2026 at the Krasno Selo Municipal Institute of Culture, Sofia.