Artist Statement
Award-winning photographer Andreana Stoyanova, born in Bulgaria in 1982, was at the age of three immersed in ballet and on her way to becoming a ballet prodigy. Traumatized by a childhood sexual molestation, she suffered from self-inflicted body shaming and guilt. This experience greatly impacted her life as a teenager and early twenties as a woman. Later as a UC Berkeley student, her innate ever-present passion about art and self-expression found a wider and intense expression in drawing, and most particularly in one after another sculpting of, the female body - with the huge benefit of bringing relief and healing from a sense of guilt and shame about her own body she carried as a young woman.
In college Andreana also resumed dancing, and passionately so, as a vehicle to celebrate and explore her own body, passion, sensuality and sexuality as a woman, just as she explored that of all women with her sculpting. In the processes she gained deep appreciation for the wonder and the beauty that is the human body – now the inspiration and focus of her work in her photography career.
As a photographer in 2018-2019, “Human Shapes” and “Cocoon” became her first independent study projects. She captures all images in camera and uses a single light source to create high contrast that accentuates the lines and shape of her subject. There is minimal post-production, as her subjects’ imperfections are beautiful.
Awards
2015 Juried Exhibit Santa Monica College First Place in Nude Category
2015 Juried Exhibit Santa Monica College in Fashion Category – Honorary Mention
2016 Fine Art Photography Award in Nude Category
2019 Juried Exhibit Santa Monica College – Award of Excellence and Best Travel Photo
2019 Fine Art Photography Award in the Nude Series Category
Exhibits
2015 Juried Exhibit Santa Monica College
2015 Documentary Photography Exhibit Santa Monica College
2018 Santa Monica Airport Arena I Gallery- Private Gallery Exhibit
2019 Juried Exhibit Santa Monica College
2019 Staged Photography Exhibit the Getty Museum, College Night
2019 Portfolio Exhibit Santa Monica College
2019 “Out There” at Gallery 825, Los Angeles