How I Ended Up in Bulgaria for 8 Days of Photography, Art & Creative Exchange

A few months ago, I got on a plane to Bulgaria for eight days, nine photoshoots, two lectures, and my first international art exhibition.

Which is still a slightly insane sentence to write.

The trip was part of the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI), the U.S. Department of State’s flagship program for emerging entrepreneurs from Europe.

My involvement with YTILI actually started in the fall of 2025, when I was invited to apply to be a host by Global New Orleans. Entrepreneurs coming to the U.S. through the program are matched with American business owners in similar fields to work alongside each other and exchange ideas, skills, and perspectives.

I was matched with Aliya, a photographer from Burgas, Bulgaria. (You can check out her work here.)

She spent several weeks with me in New Orleans, working alongside me at my photography business. It wasn't an internship. We were coming into the experience at similar places in our careers, so it was much more of an exchange. She got to see how I run my business and approach photography in New Orleans, while I got to learn from the way she works and sees the world.

While she was here, we decided to pitch a reciprocal exchange.

And somehow, that pitch turned into me being flown to Bulgaria to do what I love for eight days.

Eight very full days in Bulgaria

I knew before I left that this wasn't going to be a relaxing European vacation.

We had planned nine photoshoots, two lectures, and an entire gallery exhibition in eight days.

Most of my time was spent in Burgas, with one day in Sofia, and Aliya somehow managed to weave sightseeing into an already slightly unhinged schedule. We walked, drove, photographed, planned, printed, taught, explored and occasionally remembered that human beings also need to eat and sleep.

But one of my favorite things about the trip was that I wasn't experiencing Bulgaria purely as a tourist.

Our photoshoots took us to different places and introduced me to people I probably never would have met otherwise. I got to experience what everyday life looked like for Aliya while also getting to watch her experience her own home through my eyes.

One of my favorite places we visited was Lake Atanasovsko, known for its pink saltwater.

I covered myself in the mud from the lake, because obviously, and then used that same mud to create a painting right there.

That painting would later hang in our exhibition.

Another shoot brought us to Sinemorets, where I was teaching a workshop for the Sofia School of Photography. The cliffs leading down into the Black Sea were genuinely breathtaking, and we used the landscape for a mock branding photoshoot after my lecture.

It was one of those moments where I kept thinking:

How is this my job?!?!

Teaching branding photography in Bulgaria

Two of the nine photoshoots were actually workshops, one at an arts high school and another with the Sofia School of Photography.

I shared my story and how I built my photography business before teaching them about branding photography and walking them through my process from beginning to end.

We did a mock strategy call. I created a mock vision board. And then we took everything we'd talked about and turned it into an actual branding photoshoot.

I already knew that speaking and teaching were things I wanted to do more of, but there's something different about actually doing the thing you've been saying you want.

I felt completely in my element.

It was less of an Oh, maybe I could do this someday moment and more of an Oh. I was right. I really do want this.

And doing it in Bulgaria certainly didn't hurt.

Bringing New Orleans and Bulgaria together

The biggest project of the trip was our exhibition.

The concept looked at the similarities between the wetlands surrounding New Orleans and Burgas.

My paintings featured Louisiana swamps alongside pieces inspired by Bulgaria's pink lake, including the painting I made with mud from the lake itself. Aliya exhibited her photographs of birds from both Bulgaria and New Orleans.

Two completely different places connected through water, wildlife, art, and the two artists who happened to meet because of this program.

We had only about a month to prepare everything before I arrived.

For the record, I have since learned that one month is not enough time to create an exhibition of paintings without completely burning yourself out.

It is now August and my painting studio and I are still taking some space from each other.

But we pulled it off.

Standing in that gallery in Bulgaria, surrounded by people looking at our work, I mostly felt relieved. Then proud. Then a little bit blown away.

This was my first international exhibition.

And it was actually happening.

Coming home with a bigger sense of what's possible

There were obviously cultural differences throughout the trip, from the visible remnants of Bulgaria's communist history to tiny everyday things Aliya and I discovered were completely normal in one country and surprising in the other.

And then there was the dairy.

So. Much. Dairy.

At one point, Aliya had me try ayran, a drink made with yogurt and water. I would love to tell you that this was a beautiful cultural experience that expanded my palate.

I hated it. I actually needed a dairy break when I got back to America.

But one of the bigger differences I kept thinking about was opportunity.

Being in Bulgaria made me appreciate how much creativity, culture, freedom of expression, and entrepreneurial possibility I'm surrounded by in New Orleans. There were moments in our exchanges when I'd talk about something I'd done or something that was possible with my business and realize that what felt relatively normal to me felt surprising to someone else.

It made me more aware of how often I approach my own life and business with the assumption that if I want something, there is probably some way to make it happen.

And weirdly, this entire trip was proof of that.

A year ago, I wasn't planning an exhibition in Bulgaria. I wasn't planning to lecture at a photography school on the Black Sea. I wasn't planning to be flown across the world to photograph, teach, make art, and collaborate with another photographer.

And then I was doing exactly that.

On my final night, I took myself to dinner alone, one of my favorite things to do when I'm traveling.

I was exhausted. Creatively drained. Sad to leave. Proud of myself. And still trying to process the fact that this entire experience had actually happened.

I think that's what I've carried with me most since coming home.

There are so many opportunities out there that I don't even know exist yet.

Sometimes you apply for something. Sometimes you pitch the idea. Sometimes you say yes before you fully understand how you're going to pull off nine photoshoots and an international exhibition in eight days.

And then suddenly you're sitting alone at dinner in Bulgaria thinking,

Wow. I really get to live this life.