In September, a major photographic event will draw professionals and amateurs to the seaside.

Photovacation 2001 is a panorama of the photographic events throughout the year and the largest international photographic event in Bulgaria in terms of number of participants, range of photographic interests, and implication to Bulgarian society, said the organizers from the Photography Society-Bulgaria.

This year's event will take place from September 2-9 at the International Youth Centre in the resort town of Primorsko, where the Strandja mountain meets the Black Sea coast. The event will include photographic competitions, exhibitions, and informal classes.

The Photography Society-Bulgaria is actually a commercial enterprise. It was purposefully established as such, and not as a society, explained Zvezda Spasova from the company - the purpose being to prevent the disintegration that eventually descends upon every society. The company was established with the goal of restoring the Photovacation tradition.

What the Photography Society does is develop the ideas of the Photovacation. It is a way for everybody to show their work. This is why no one gets official invitations, but everyone is invited to a meeting of photography. The Photovacation is a time for photography, for debuts, for expression, for stimulation of searching, for an offering of the created, for training and education, for access to the new trends, and for making contacts.

Photovacations have been organized during communist times, since the 1980s, by the no-longer existing state company Bulgarska Fotografia. After 1989, no one organized such events, and the connections between the photography enthusiasts disintegrated as well.

Photovacation is also a way to enter photography as a topic into the mass media, and to provide the opportunity for public discussion and dialogue about photography as a cultural event of great social importance, Spassova said. The photography competition will be one of the highlights of the Photovacation. It is open to all registered participants, and has the biggest award fund for photography in Bulgaria.

This year, a new way of judging will be introduced. The jury of the first round will include not photographers but representatives of other visual arts - in order to bind photography to society, explained Spassova. The second round winner will be selected through personal voting by all the participants in the competition - in order to encourage self-criticism.

At a PhotoFair held during the event, the newest equipment, materials and accessories on the market will be presented, and one-day photography courses will be taught.

The Photovacation will also have a PhotoGallery, which will include exhibitions by Bulgarian photography doyens Ivo Hadjimishev and Garo Keshishian and exhibitions of pictures made during the Photovacation as well as spontaneous exhibitions in the open air.

A PhotoForum will ensure the unity of the various parts of the event. It will include presentations of the photography associations in Bulgaria, lectures, discussions, and workshops. Games, such as PhotoFishFest (cooking fish meals, taking pictures of them, and eating them), will entertain the participants. The event will also be put online.

Also for the first time, this year the Photovacation will work with the Apollonia Art Festival in Sozopol, another event on the Black Sea coast, which also takes place in the beginning of September. The Collection 2001 - the best Bulgarian photographs of the last 10 years - will be exhibited in the Military Club in Sozopol.