http://www.lightstalkers.org/svetlanabahchevanova After growing up in Bulgaria, Svetlana Bahchevanova moved to the United States six years ago and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. As a documentary and editorial photographer, Svetlana focuses on social, political changes and conflicts. She is been photojournalist for 18 years. She participated in an illegal democratic movement in communist Bulgaria and documented the entire process of democratic change there, published in a book “The Street”. Bahchevanova spent seven years as chief photographer of the first democratic newspaper in Bulgaria “Democracy”. Photojournalistic assignments from this period include: uncovering mass graves from the years 1944-46 – a research for a CNN coverage of the political development of Bulgaria after 1989; labor camps where members of the Bulgarian intellectual elite had been detained in the 1940’s and ‘50s; the assassinations of members of the organized crime as well as; the photo projects investigating the struggle for human rights of the Bulgarian Muslims (photographs used as trial evidence before the Human Rights Commission, Strasburg). Her photo essays often focus on human rights and social change such as covering the Muslim and Gipsy minority groups in Bulgaria, the war in Bosnia and Kosovo, the military attempt against the Russian president Boris Eltzin, the Revolution in Romania, and the events prior to the democratic elections in Yugoslavia. As a photographer of the Bulgarian Prime Minister and the Bulgarian President she covered summits with a number of heads of states around the world. Since the summer of 2001 Svetlana Bahchevanova has been working on a several projects - intimate portrayals of people and everyday life in America which explore issues of American culture, religion and political life. Currently she is working on project “Life at the end of the Revolution” which documents the social and political changes in post communist Cuba. Her photo essay and news coverage is been published in AP, France Press, Gamma, SIPA, World Picture News and magazines and newspapers as Paris Mach, Figaro, Umanite Dimansh, Capital, Marie Clair, The New York Times, W, etc. Currently Svetlana Bahchevanova is a contributing photographer for Aurora Photos. en-us