Standing on the edge of the cliff overhanging the Kidney lake (Бъбрека, Babreka), the fifth of the seven Rila Lakes, the view is so breathtaking that it is hard not to see why Nadezhda Chipeva decided to photograph the gathering of the followers of Peter Duenov that takes place here every year.

Duenov, a spiritual master and founder of a school of Esoteric Christianity known as the Universal White Brotherhood, was said to have picked this place because it had special energies.

Every year on August 19, members of the brotherhood come to the lakes from all over the world to celebrate the Divine New Year and to perform a ritual that is known as paneurhythmy.

The ritual, which consists of a series of dances in large circles by performers all dressed in white, makes for a spectacular view.
Chipeva had set herself the photo-assignment because, as she says, "no one will send you there. It is a serious climb, where you have to carry a tent and all your equipment."

Beginnings
Currently, Chipeva is mostly known for her photographic work which appears in Bulgarian newspapers Dnevnik and Kapital, as well as in The Sofia Echo.
After graduating from the photographic school in Sofia in 1983, she worked as an artist/photographer, participating in many exhibitions and competitions.

"For me, the change came in 1989. When the political changes came, I left for the street and started photographing all the protests," she says.
"It was natural to go out. There was so much happening outside; if you stayed inside you would miss what was going on," Chipeva says.

Since then, she has worked as a photo-reporter. First for Bulgarian news agency BTA - "they had the best photo labs" - and later, from 1995 on, for Trud magazine, the first Bulgarian magazine to use a format similar to Time magazine.

Chipeva has worked for Dnevnik from the very first day and, for the past two years, she has worked for Kapital weekly, specialising in political and economic affairs.

Escape
Her trips to the seven Rila Lakes were "an escape from the city, from the politics that I photograph every day," Chipeva says.
With three trips to the annual celebration, Chipeva is somewhat of a veteran of the event.

On July 7 2009, she opened a photo-exhibition at the Zenith Gallery (formerly known as the EIBank gallery) in Sofia, which shows a selection of the photos she took during her trips in 2001, 2006 and 2008.  The exhibition is dedicated to the 145th birthday of Duenov on July 11.

"Once on the mountain, you have to get up at 4am to find a place from where to photograph before sunrise, as the members of the brotherhood prepare to greet the sunrise with songs," Chipeva says.

Later, the climb to the Kidney lake, where the ceremony is performed, starts.
"The ceremony takes about an hour, so you have to hurry to get your photos. But it is so beautiful up there that you forget the physical effort it takes," Chipeva says.

During her trip in 2008, Chipeva had decided she wanted to take a photo overlooking the Kidney lake.
"I had decided this time to climb above the lake. There is an almost vertical slope there and in order to see the entire lake, you have to stand on the edge of a cliff. So I stood this far away from the edge," Chipeva says, showing with two fingers a distance of only a few centimetres.

"It is frightening, because it is very high. But it is extremely beautiful," she says.
This was the photo that would lead to an invitation from the Zenith Gallery for the exhibition, on show at 2 Slavyanska Str until August 7 2009.