Love can be felt, but sometimes even seen – just like it is in the photos of Radic Banev. His traveling exhibition of 20 pictures shows us 20 dimensions of love. The Foster Care Childhood travelling exhibition is now in Plovdiv and will stay there till February 20, at the municipal council’s gallery.

Radic Banev visited once a press conference of the National Foster Care Association without having any idea that the emotional event would make him travel across 10 cities and towns. However, when he heard all those foster care stories on abandoned children he asked himself what he could do to help them. The answer was simple – photography.

I was most impressed by the fact that these people had opened their hearts for children – total strangers, accepting them into their families. The feelings are much stronger in these families because they are not relatives. The personal kindness of the foster parents is what grounds all those stories, as they give a chance to children, deprived from an equal start with their coevals. Their receiving is a small miracle on its own – they now have their options and dreams, their life changes and they will have their future.

Over 2,000 Bulgarian families take foster care. About 100 abandoned children find their new parents each month, data of the Social Support Agency shows. Biser and Tarzan are among those, who touched the heart of the photographer for a first time. The two boys had been moved from one orphanage to another through all their life until finally they found their foster mom Elena Atanasova.

I feel them closer, since I have seen their personal growth – they live a full life. I went to their school and saw them in a different environment, Radic Banev recalls.

At first the boys found it hard to get used to the new life – there were strong reactions, sometimes lack of hope, but also lots of smiles and joy. Biser used to be shy and with no self-confidence, while Tarzan was the badass at school. Their mom is full of happiness and joy when she sees them smiling, proud and calm. That is how the photographer has captured the boys.

I wanted to show the attitude above all, as the photos had not been set in advance, the photographer explains on the emotions. The feelings are real in those and that was what I wanted to show. I wanted to leave the frames of official statistics and to accentuate on the need that foster parents have of their children.

Yet another traveling exhibition of the photographer is touring around this country – Paziteli I Traditsii /Guardians and Traditions/. It was shot in Sofia’s Borisova Garden during a large folklore festival. The author says it takes us back to our roots with color and good mood, reminding of what our history and lifestyle have preserved.

Bearing in mind the 5-century-long Ottoman rule, these traditions were essential for the preserving of our identity,” the photographer says and recalls a story. “Back in the days when a man kicked off the construction of his house he would only buy the land and the nails. The whole village would gather, in order to help him to build up a home and continue with his life. These are the good traditions that are somehow cornered in this fuss of the digital world…

Radic Banev was attracted to B&W photography back in the 1990s when the streets were full of life, due both to numerous political events and exhibitions, open air performances etc. The documentary feature of photography is essential, according to the author and he is convinced that the picture, covering our time can be taken in the streets only.