Yana Paskova - Photojournalist

Travel

Across Eastern Europe, Asia and the Americas.  

Photographed for: The New York Times, and as personal work 

  • Traveling through Bulgaria in August 2008.
  • Blackbelly sheep surround a sugar plantation (background right) in Barbados on Saturday, April 10, 2010.
  • A little boy stares at the trees above Bryant Park on Thursday, February 18, 2010, the last day of Fall 2010 Fashion Week in Manhattan, New York.
  • A man stands on a rooftop below a handmade electrical grid hanging over a Roma village, as people turn up to vote in October's Parliamentary elections in the nation's capital, Sofia. Today, October 5th, 2014, is also Midterm Elections day in the States - its multi-party ticket an unimaginable reality in autocratic Bulgaria pre-1989. Despite a month-long vacillation on the make-up of their political coalitions and their new prime minister - and that only 49% of the population turned up to vote today - party leaders narrowly avoided reelections, with former prime minister and leader of center-right party GERB Boyko Borisov reinstated at the post.The story of democracy in Bulgaria at age 25 is a cautionary tale about transplanting one-size-fits-all Western values to a nation still undergoing social and economic upheaval. Bulgaria is still one of the poorest, most corrupt nations in the European Union, its post-1989 hopes wilted by political instability, high crime rates and skyrocketing inflation. While Bulgarians can now freely vote and protest without much threat to their freedom, their new oppressor is corruption - which is at a 15 year high, across political and civil sectors alike. The ennui is so casually etched on the passerby's face that it becomes routine - one that fits in sadly well against a startling backdrop of rotting architecture, joblessness, and a vast population decline. Despite what democracy has changed in Bulgaria, the daily struggles of its populace remain largely untouched, trapped in a post-communist time capsule.
  • A man shields himself from the rain in Holetown in Barbados on Saturday, April 10, 2010.
  • A pedestrian shields herself from the afternoon sun walking across the Manhattan bridge toward Brooklyn, with the graffitied buildings of Chinatown in the background, in New York, New York, on July 16, 2015.
  • An everyday scene in the city park of the port city of Mariel, Cuba, a town whose tranquil appearance belies its important place in both the history and future of Cuban-American interaction. It is where Russians unloaded nuclear warheads in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, and the gateway through which 125,000 Miami-bound emigres fled during the Mariel Boatlift of 1980. The town is now the site of construction of a deepwater container port and a free-trade zone, a critical ingredient for which will be the future of the U.S. embargo against Cuba, in place for more than 50 years but now under speculation of being lifted.
  • People populate Field 6 during a windy day on Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York.
  • A car passes a sugar field in Barbados on Saturday, April 10, 2010.
  • A woman sells geese from the trunk of her car, at an outdoor market in Vidin, Bulgaria on October 18th, 2014. Many Bulgarians sell personal belongings, fruit and vegetables grown at home, or resell goods as a supplement to their primary earnings. Bulgaria is still one of the poorest, most corrupt nations in the European Union, its post-1989 hopes wilted by political instability, high crime rates and skyrocketing inflation. While Bulgarians can now freely vote and protest without much threat to their freedom, their new oppressor is corruption - which is at a 15 year high, across political and civil sectors alike. Despite what democracy has changed in Bulgaria, the daily struggles of its populace remain largely untouched, trapped in a post-communist time capsule.
  • Hay bells are transported through a village in Bulgaria in January 2009.
  • A goat looks out of a window of a crumbling building in Belene, Bulgaria, on November 10th, 2014. Many in the 1950s who didn't belong to the Communist party languished in the gulag-like forced labor camp, an island on the Danube river. Belene still houses prisoners, some for petty theft, some for larger crimes. The section of the island that was once dedicated to imprisoning political dissidents, now in crumbles, is a haunting reminder of the dangers once posed by an independent mind in pre-1989 Eastern Europe.
  • A dog naps in Macedonia Square in Skopje, Macedonia on Sunday, September 05, 2010.
  • A man sleeps on his bike in New Delhi, India, in May 2009.
  • A bridge in Titovelis, Macedonia on Sunday, September 05, 2010.
  • (L-R) Two Macedonian gypsy boys, Elis and Martin, swim in the river Vardar near the Stone Bridge in Skopje, Macedonia on Sunday, September 05, 2010.
  • A boy emerges from the water in his scuba diving mask as beach-goers enjoy the warm weather on Thursday, August 14, 2008, at the Black Sea resort Sochi, Russia. The government has pledged to invest $12 billion to transform the Soviet-era resort town into a Mediterranean-style retreat. As the mountainous Black Sea resort Sochi, Russia, prepares for the Winter Olympic games scheduled there for 2014, it emerges as a place replete with contradictions -- glitzy clubs and impoverished street vendors, progress and repression, Westernization and former Eastern bloc ideologies.
  • A boy plays with strings holding crates inside a car near the Murat Pasha mosque in the Old City portion of Skopje, Macedonia on Sunday, September 05, 2010.
  • The Murat Pasha mosque rises above the Old City portion of Skopje, Macedonia on Sunday, September 05, 2010.
  • Kokomo, Indiana, is seen on Wednesday, April 23, 2008. The city -- which harbors a large automotive industry -- is preparing for the upcoming May 6th Democratic Presidential Primary.
  • A horse is tamed in a Roma village in Northwestern Bulgaria in August 2008.
  • A cheerleader guides sports fans into a cheer as they watch a baseball game at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, June 17, 2009, where the home team, the Yomiuri Giants, played and won against the Seibu Lions. Japan's futuristic ballparks feature bento boxes and noodles alongside hot dogs, young girls selling beer poured from kegs strapped on their backs, and cheerleaders who direct the massive crowds when to start -- and stop -- singing team songs in perfect unison.
  • A radio sits on a bedspread in Bregovo, Bulgaria, on August 2008.
  • A turnstile awaits further construction at the 2014 Winter Olympics site at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, on Thursday, August 14, 2008. As the mountainous Black Sea resort Sochi, Russia, prepares for the Winter Olympic games scheduled there for 2014, it emerges as a place replete with contradictions -- glitzy clubs and impoverished street vendors, progress and repression, Westernization and former Eastern bloc ideologies.
  • A look through the window of an abandoned school toward Dunavtsi, a town of waning population in Bulgaria, on October 27th, 2014. Bulgaria has the most extreme population decline in the world — much of it due to post-1989 emigration, high death rates and low birth rates. There are so few people of child-bearing age in the nation that population statistics project a 30-percent decrease by 2060, from 7.2 million to just over 5 million. In other words, Bulgaria’s population declines by 164 people a day, or 60,000 people a year — 60 percent of them aged over 65.This photo is from a project that aims to gauge the state and effect of democracy in the former Soviet satellite nation Bulgaria, two and a half decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The story of democracy in Bulgaria at age 25 is a cautionary tale about transplanting one-size-fits-all Western values to a nation still undergoing social and economic upheaval. Bulgaria is still one of the poorest, most corrupt nations in the European Union, its post-1989 hopes wilted by political instability, high crime rates and skyrocketing inflation. While Bulgarians can now freely vote and protest without much threat to their freedom, their new oppressor is corruption - which is at a 15 year high, across political and civil sectors alike. The ennui is so casually etched on the passerby's face that it becomes routine - one that fits in sadly well against a startling backdrop of rotting architecture, joblessness, and a vast population decline. Despite what democracy has changed in Bulgaria, the daily struggles of its populace remain largely untouched, trapped in a post-communist time capsule.
  • Horses seek out food in a heap of garbage surrounding a Roma village in Northwest Bulgaria in September 2008.
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  • A lamb is prepared during a Roma wedding in Northwest Bulgaria in August 2008.
  • A chicken is groomed, and its nails sharpened and augmented with a long, sharp nail made of a turtle shell, before a cock-fighting event at a sports arena on April 18, 2015 in Managua, Cuba. Cock-fighting in Cuba is in the gray area of legal - state-run events such as this (non-private) functions are permitted, but not monetary betting. This is in part due to lingering bitterness over the control U.S. mafia used to exercise over casinos and prostitution in pre-revolutionary Cuba, the income from which allowed crime lords a certain level of interference in the country's political matters.
  • A man prepares whole grilled chicken for sale transported in the trunk of his Moskvitch, an automobile made by Russia from 1946 to 2002, before a cock-fighting event at a sports arena on April 18, 2015 in Managua, Cuba. Cock-fighting in Cuba is in the gray area of legal - state-run events such as this (non-private) functions are permitted, but not monetary betting. This is in part due to lingering bitterness over the control U.S. mafia used to exercise over casinos and prostitution in pre-revolutionary Cuba, the income from which allowed crime lords a certain level of interference in the country's political matters.
  • Guests dance during a Roma wedding in Northwest Bulgaria in August 2008.
  • Mitka, a 15-year-old Roma mother, holds her head in her hands while breast-feeding her daughter Ivanka in Bulgaria.
  • Children lean against an unfinished house in a Roma village in Northwest Bulgaria in August 2008.
  • Indian men practice traditional Kushti wrestling on Monday, June 01, 2009 in New Delhi, India. Kushti, India's indigenous form of wrestling, has gone from a royal national sport to a dying art in Asia over the past century. Those who still practice it meet the lengthy hours of its daily regimen with unrelenting devotion — rope, aerobic and weight exercises; culturing the soil on which they wrestle; a diet comprised of non-spicy, self-made food; and celibacy. And so, in traditional earthen pits wrestlers still apply the physical and mental intensity that has driven their ancestors for three thousand years. But a 2004 decision by the Indian Fighters Federation from the capital of Delhi, prohibiting fighting on red soil and ordering fight clubs to use mattresses instead, exacerbated Kushti's diminishing role in Indian tradition. The order was in part an effort to gather more Olympic medals -- the first by Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, a bronze in 1952, and most recently, also a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, by Sushil Kumar.
  • Indian men practice traditional Kushti wrestling on Monday, June 01, 2009 in New Delhi, India. Kushti, India's indigenous form of wrestling, has gone from a royal national sport to a dying art in Asia over the past century. Those who still practice it meet the lengthy hours of its daily regimen with unrelenting devotion — rope, aerobic and weight exercises; culturing the soil on which they wrestle; a diet comprised of non-spicy, self-made food; and celibacy. And so, in traditional earthen pits wrestlers still apply the physical and mental intensity that has driven their ancestors for three thousand years. But a 2004 decision by the Indian Fighters Federation from the capital of Delhi, prohibiting fighting on red soil and ordering fight clubs to use mattresses instead, exacerbated Kushti's diminishing role in Indian tradition. The order was in part an effort to gather more Olympic medals -- the first by Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav, a bronze in 1952, and most recently, also a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, by Sushil Kumar.
  • A little boy stares down a pack of homeless dogs at the Black Sea resort Sochi, Russia on Wednesday, August 13, 2008. The government has pledged to invest $12 billion to transform the Soviet-era resort town into a Mediterranean-style retreat. As the mountainous Black Sea resort Sochi, Russia, prepares for the Winter Olympic games scheduled there for 2014, it emerges as a place replete with contradictions -- glitzy clubs and impoverished street vendors, progress and repression, Westernization and former Eastern bloc ideologies.
  • Children for adoption in Vidin, Bulgaria, seen on August 23, 2007, are kept in Dom Maika i Dete (Home for Mother and Child.) The home's director, Maria Rangelova, says two decades ago, the home carried more than double the children, who were mostly given away because they were born out of wedlock. And while waning birth rates and changing cultural perceptions of birth outside of marriage have decreased the home's annual number of children from about 180 to 80, there are still plenty of kids in need of adoption. Now, she says, most parents who give their children away do so because of financial want -- one that robs them of the ability to support their kids, or leaves them unable to cure an illness incapacitating them as caregivers. The home itself may soon face a monetary deficit. Although the home's current government funding system has allowed a recent renovation -- creating a cleaner and safer environment for all -- and has maintained ample supplies of food, clothes, toys, a rehabilitation room and a psychologist on staff, all that would fall in jeopardy if the government pursues a plan to delegate sponsorship to the local city council in December 2007.
  • A little girl sucks a lollipop under the hungry gaze of a little friend at the Dom Maika i Dete (Home for Mother and Child) adoption home in Vidin, Bulgaria on August 31, 2008.Children for adoption in Vidin, Bulgaria, live here. The home's director, Maria Rangelova, describes that two decades ago, the home carried more than double the children, who were mostly given away because they were born out of wedlock. While the number of children has decreasted from about 180 to 80 from waning birth rates and shifting cultural perceptions of birth outside of marriage, there remain many kids in need of adoption. Now, she says, most parents who give their children away do so because of financial want -- one that robs them of the ability to support their kids, or leaves them unable to cure an illness that has incapacitated them as caregivers. The home often struggles to provide an adequate amount of toys, snacks and personnel necessary for the children's caregiving.
  • A nurse cradles a boy at the Dom Maika i Dete (Home for Mother and Child) adoption home in Vidin, Bulgaria on August 23, 2008.Children for adoption in Vidin, Bulgaria, live here. The home's director, Maria Rangelova, describes that two decades ago, the home carried more than double the children, who were mostly given away because they were born out of wedlock. While the number of children has decreasted from about 180 to 80 from waning birth rates and shifting cultural perceptions of birth outside of marriage, there remain many kids in need of adoption. Now, she says, most parents who give their children away do so because of financial want -- one that robs them of the ability to support their kids, or leaves them unable to cure an illness that has incapacitated them as caregivers. The home often struggles to provide an adequate amount of toys, snacks and personnel necessary for the children's caregiving.
  • Investors have flooded the Russian beach town of Sochi since its award as the 2014 Winter Olympics location in an effort to create a Mediterranean-style resort. Here, a bus rider glances at a mural of the Russian communist politician Vladimir Lenin on Tuesday, August 12, 2008. As the mountainous Black Sea resort Sochi, Russia, prepares for the Winter Olympic games scheduled there for 2014, it emerges as a place replete with contradictions -- glitzy clubs and impoverished street vendors, progress and repression, Westernization and former Eastern bloc ideologies.
  • A woman sells hand-woven scarves and blankets for small change at the Black Sea resort Sochi, Russia on Wednesday, August 13, 2008. The government has pledged to invest $12 billion to transform the Soviet-era resort town into a Mediterranean-style retreat. As the mountainous Black Sea resort Sochi, Russia, prepares for the Winter Olympic games scheduled there for 2014, it emerges as a place replete with contradictions -- glitzy clubs and impoverished street vendors, progress and repression, Westernization and former Eastern bloc ideologies.
  • INTRO
  • U.S. Presidential Campaign Trails (in chronology)
  • Ongoing: Democracy + Communism
    • Synopsis: Communism, across time + geography
    • In Print - Nat Geo :: Cuba + Bulgaria, in Layers
    • In Print - NYT :: Cuba: Communism Relived
    • In Print - TIME :: Bulgaria: 25 Years After Democracy
  • Travel
  • New Yorkers
  • Portraiture
  • Fashion + The Arts
    • Fashion
    • The Arts
  • Indian Kushti
  • A Dark Room
  • In Print
  • :: About me
  • :: Contact
  • :: Copyright Agreement

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