The Garden of the Bees – Krasimir Kostov

Synthesis Gallery / 19.02.2026 – 4.04.2026

THE GARDEN OF THE BEES Krasimir Kostov Curators: Nadezhda Pavlova and Nikola Mihov 🗓 February 19 – April 4, 2026 📍Synthesis Gallery ℹ️ Opening: February 19, 6:30 PM, in the presence of the artist 📌 Accompanying Program ▫️ February 20, 6:30 PM: Musical performance by Krasimir Kostov and Ivan Kostolov ▫️ March 11, 8:00 PM: Screening of the film “Honeyland”, dir. Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, Odeon Cinema ▫️ March 17, 5:00–8:00 PM: PhotoSynthesis Library – Focus: Family Chronicles, Guest: Rossen Kuzmanov Synthesis Gallery invites you to “The Garden of the Bees”, an exhibition by Krasimir Kostov. He lives in the seaside village of Ezerets and has been shooting on film for twenty years. He makes his own prints and works with cameras similar to those his father used when he began the family tradition of documenting everyday life. “Sometimes I think my commitment to analog photography is a form of resistance to the world’s increasingly warped speed pace of change. I stopped buying new ever-more ‘perfect’ lenses, light meters, and cameras to preserve the look of the amateur photograph – never fully polished – which doesn’t mean I don’t want good prints. My father took our childhood photos with a Rolleiflex and an Exakta, and for sentimental reasons I continued to photograph with similar equipment.” The artist says he photographs as if he is creating the world. And his world truly is different. Day after day, he builds his quiet gelatin silver family chronicle – dense, rich with love, inheritance, care, respect, and an inner wholeness. Krasimir Kostov jokes that in good families one doesn’t talk about money and politics. And in his home, it’s as if nothing is lacking – unusual and almost paradoxical for our time. His bond with bees is especially strong. He cares for them and they care for him. The same reciprocity can be found in his relationship with photography: Kostov lets it settle permanently into his home, and in return it becomes a building block of a parallel, “honey-photographic” universe. 🐝 This universe is inhabited by his wife Elen; their son, Koki; his father, Kiril; the dog, Vyara; and the cat, Bella, along with their friends, who, even when not physically present, are still there, on the “wall by the stove”, through their paintings, portraits, and prints. They are around every day, so the connection is not lost, and they are spoken of as if they are here and now. In Krasimir’s photographs, every element of daily life is present – household objects, tools, decorations. Every person and every object that enters his life has its photograph. These images accumulate and carry – now for more than twenty years – such a density of time and love that it is difficult to take them in all at once. For this photographer time does not matter. His photographs impress with their methodical approach, calmness, and devotion. He photographs his family, his home, the garden, the beehives, the friends who come to visit. All of this exists within a relatively small territory. At a time when many believe they must travel thousands of kilometers to find inspiration, he discovers it at the place where he wakes up each day. In “The Garden of the Bees”, we encounter love in all its forms – between husband and wife, father and son, friends; between human and bee, cat, dog and the cherry tree. Between the human being and the strong wind, the deserted village, the cold sea. And photography appears as an extract of everyday life: a quiet, unceasing refrain, immersed in a sea of honey. 🍯 📎 About the artist: Krasimir Kostov is a photographer and beekeeper. He was born in 1975 in Varna and has lived and worked in the village of Ezerets (Shabla Municipality) since 2000. He spent his childhood in Kavarna, graduated from the High School for Performing and Screen Arts, and got a degree in Art Education from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia. In addition to working with various analog photographic techniques, he experiments by painting on photographic prints with water-soluble paints. He is also part of the music project KopfderHund Band, which performed at the Buna 2 festival in Varna in 2024. In 2014, Gallery Arosita presented his exhibition “Family Portrait”; in 2013, he showed a solo exhibition in the studio of artist Ivan Kostolov as part of Plovdiv’s Night of Museums and Galleries; in 2012, Varna’s Gallery 8 hosted his solo show; in 2011, he took part in the Videoholika festival; and in 2008 – in the August in Art festival in Varna. His works have also been shown at Banya Starinna Gallery, Plovdiv (2006); Balabanov House Gallery, Plovdiv (2005); Alfonso Arisa Gallery, Larambla, Spain (2004); and London Art School, United Kingdom (2001). 🔹 The exhibition is produced by Gallery Synthesis with the support of PhotoSynthesis and includes silver-gelatin prints from Krasimir Kostov’s personal archive, as well as works by artists Ivan Kostolov, Neno Belchev, Dinko Angelov, and Konstantin Kostov. The media partner of the exhibition is ВИЖ! Magazine. 🌱 Synthesis Gallery was founded in 2013 as a part of PhotoSynthesis – a photography hub, which houses the leading store for photo and video equipment, a print center, photobook library, café and event space.