Go ahead and tell me it is not all connected, I dare you. I double dare you! I triple... Wait. Let us start anew.

This is a story about my project... about two... about three of my... Well, isn't it a story about all of my projects? Are all of my projects about cats? No, not really, but they are somehow connected. Stay awhile and I will tell you how.

The least of my works as of now, in terms of time consumption, is the second round of a photo challenge I started and it is about stories. I put an example there, a series of photographs taken during a charity concert of Poduene Blues Band. And they have this song about the stray dog of the... oh, the painful translations I have seen!... well, of 'da hood'. The space at the rim where life and infrastructure seem to have have some catching up to do but it also seems that nobody is in a rush so that it would ever happen.

Mud? Yes, please.

I do not want you to get things wrong. This project is also about people not getting things wrong. The character in the photo made a comment, directed at the village mayor's secretary who was walking with me on my first visit there in order to introduce me to some people. Was he a clever guy doing the show of earth bending in front of her and a visitor's camera? This photograph was taken in June, 2018 and you can see the same street asphalt covered in the images I took in October, 2018 - at the bottom of the article.

And how could the song about the stray dog leave my head while I was walking those streets for a few days with a mission to get the feeling of the place? Even though it was a gypsy quarter I would not call it a ghetto to the full extent of the term. Marginal? Yes, but only by default. We may speak of the process of integration but as a wise man told me on my previous visit there: 'It is a stupid concept. Artificial. Modern. We were one when my generation studied in the same school and worked the same jobs as everybody else. Now by talking about integration they imply we are separate.'

The people there are quite up to date, actually. They mostly work abroad, in the UK or in Spain. And they come back from time to time to build yet another part of their modern, clean houses. The infrastructure is a bit behind, but hey, it is a Bulgarian village, after all.

That project of mine is not about this place only (but it should cover it well). It is about the whole village of Bolyartsi in the Plovdiv region of Bulgaria. A lot of other people live there and some have even moved back from bigger cities. Or visit regularly, adding value.

I am sponsored by a single person. So far. Our wish is to find more funding but we are both amateurs in that and we start slowly, working on gathering material and thinking of ways to advance. The main goal is to work for the morale of the locals and through that to find ways of working for the morale of people in other places. The topic is actually 'The Ordinary Village'. Here's first thing I learned about the place, by words of the person who invited me: 'It is special because it is not special at all.' We have to make it special.

However, not all of the villages in our country, or in lots of other parts of the world for that matter, are ordinary in such a way. Lots of them are disappearing, no population left to maintain or develop them, regardless of the potential they still have. This is an universal problem, right? The problem of Bolyartsi is that very few of the people there would call themselves lucky. Isn't it also a general human feature - often forgetting to see happiness in what we have.

So, for now, we stick to the principle that I published as my first shared quote here:

'What is most personal is most universal.'
- psychologist Carl Rogers, one of the founders of the humanistic approach

And we're looking for stories. Of people and of places. They are coming. I think most of them should rather go deep than wide and rather go with less than with more. This is my journalist's and photographer's way of thinking. Photography is a language. A single photo may have lots of meaning or none. Depends on both the author and the audience.

The first photo story I would like to show you, though, is about the cats in that village.

Because cats are beautiful people. And so are sparrows. One you will see today but they may return in force in their own story. And we begin to realize that the stories are not only about cats. They are more universal, that's right.

Moreover, there are also those photos of a human in the story. Because he is a beautiful cat. Trust me on this.

That's right, this is the street that was mud in the photo taken a few months ago.

Made with just a small part of the material I have gathered so far. And still we need more before we open our first exhibition there. It has to be spectacular in some way so we're browsing through ideas.

This is how I found an author here, who does an amazing job with photography and stones - @captainklaus. I learned something about the process he was kind to share but it lies beyond my current abilities. Maybe someday I will learn more. Meanwhile we continue brainstorming even though in not that stormy of a way.

And, of course, you are all invited. To share ideas, to even visit the place yourself (maybe you will find a spectacular exhibition there). Soon I will show you there is a lot to see besides cats.

About our ideas... I had one that would include me training local children to photograph their environment themselves. And then the other night a lady gave a lecture in front of our club in Sofia... And she showed us exactly that kind of a project by a certain NG photographer known as Reza.

See how everything connects to my cats?

Even another project I am currently working on, right here. I am speaking of the '1001 places to remember' by @archisteem where I recently joined the editor team. Wouldn't it be cool to include our ordinary village as one of those places. Well, whatever happens. More people are welcome, by the way!

And finally, here's the link to the photo challenge I mentioned. It is about stories:
https://steemit.com/photoanthill/@manoldonchev/photoanthill-rewards-week-2-photo-story
I decided it should not interrupt the narrative so I left it for last. Maybe some of you will be interested, though.

Yours,

Manol