Order and Decay

February 2008. Reading, England. Myself, Venislav Petrov move permanently to England, to start a new life. I come from a small Eastern European country, Bulgaria, which is still struggling to recover from the Fall of Communism in 1989. Part of my family moved to England in 2001, due to lack of job opportunities and no clear vision of prosperity of Bulgaria. in 2008, at the age of 16, me and my family decided it would be best for me to continue my education in England, because of teachers’ strikes and inadequate level of education. It was a significant change for me, meaning I have to start a new life, build new social environment but I believed this would be highly beneficial for me. Throughout the years I’ve developed an extensive interest and knowledge in Photography as a way of expressing the way I see the world. I like to call myself a Documentary photographer. Bulgaria has always been the strongest point of inspiration for my photography. Visiting Bulgaria every now and again for holidays has opened new perspectives for future photography projects. I suppose this happened because I was going back with a fresh eye, I was like a foreigner in a way, so I could easily spot what was different to me from what I began to get used to in England. I am producing work which is highly recognised here, in England and this is really constructive for me. Being in England for most of the time in a year I am trying to continue the projects I have started in Bulgaria but unfortunately the work just does not make the same impact. This is where the idea for this project was born. Back in 2008 when I moved to England, what first stroke me were the endless rows of houses, all being the same, each house with a drive, grass always looking fresh and taken care of. One word could summarise all those first impressions - Order. It was something I’ve never experienced to such an extent and it just looked beautiful. On the other hand my beloved Bulgaria unfortunately could not offer this. In fact, it is the complete opposite, disorder or rather Decay haunts the streets of every town/city. Without a doubt, there are new buildings and housing estates being build but the process is taking forever.