Limina: Exploring liminality through rural depopulation in Bulgaria

Abstract

The thesis ‘Limina’ is an exploration of the anthropological concept of liminality through depopulation in rural Bulgaria. The thesis consists of four parts. Part I-III are written components and include the theoretical ideas that inform the photographic work. Part IV consists of a physical photo-book titled The Place of No Crows.

Part I presents the origins of liminality as the middle part of a ritual rite of passage within small-scale societies, as defined by anthropologists Arnold Van Gennep and Victor W. Turner. Part I also examines more contemporary interpretations of the concept by academics, such as Bjørn Thomassen and Árpád Szakolczai, and liminality’s enduring relationship to moments or periods of transition.

Part II examines the context of rural depopulation in Bulgaria and proposes that similarities can be made between depopulation and liminality.

Part III essentially consists of three essays titled Thoughts on Late Photography, Thoughts on Ruin, Thoughts on Threshold. Through analysis of the photographic genre of ‘Late Photography’, as defined by contemporary photographic theorists, David Campany and Simon Faulkner, as well as through interpretation and historic depictions of both ruins and of thresholds in visual art, these essays explore the stylistic approach to the photographs featured in the photobook The Place of No Crows.

Part IV is the final component to this thesis and consists of a physical book titled The Place of No Crows. The book consists of 54 color photographs taken from three different trips to Bulgaria made between 2017 and 2019. The sequencing of the book follows the seasonal cycle in order to emphasize the overarching theme of transition. Besides liminality, the photographs are an examination of landscape, history and memory, within the context of contemporary rural Bulgaria.