Photographer Asen Georgiev is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the project ‘Unorthodox’. To see Asen’s body of work, click on any photograph.

Unorthodox aims to show the modern-day interpretation of spirituality in the ex Soviet block. Religion and spirituality have been a major part of the region’s everyday life and culture ever since people started living here. First it was the Thracians, then the Slavs, then Christianity became the norm. In the 14th and 15th centuries a significant part of the region was conquered by the Ottomans who imposed Islam and tried to push even further and set Sheriah law.

Eventually the region was liberated but not for long.

Towards the end of World War 2, the Soviet Army conquered nearly the whole of Eastern Europe.

Communism is known around the world for its lack of respect for human life and basic freedoms. Religion is one of these freedoms.

Churches were destroyed, bibles burnt, priests sent to concentration camps and major religious holidays like Christmas and Easter banned.

This was the case for nearly 50 years. That was one of the things that made the population lose its identity.

Now the whole region seems lost between the East and West. A big part of it is extremely corrupt to the extent that corruption takes people’s lives. All of this after just 50 years of dictatorship.

Now a mess of Catholic, Apostolic and Orthodox Christianity and a whole bunch of Pagan rituals, Eastern Europe is still struggling to find its cultural identity and a way to a brighter future. It’s stuck in its “Unorthodox” struggle for identity and spiritual growth.

Artist statement:

“Unorthodox” aims to show the grotesque reality of the spiritual world in a post-communist Eastern Europe. It shows priests with fancy watches, the tattoos of wannabe moral religious folk, the weird mix of Ottoman, Pagan and Communist culture. It was created in search of an explanation of why Eastern Europe is so disunited and comparatively underdeveloped.

All images and text © Asen Georgiev