At first, when he first arrived in Bulgaria, Alexander Acosta Osorio felt isolated and a little confused because of the language barrier and the cultural clash. "At that time, there wasn't such a large foreign community here, and I was probably the only Colombian in the city," Alexander recalls. His fate resembles that of tens of thousands of foreigners who have chosen Bulgaria as their home and call themselves expats.

"Now there are more foreigners. When I arrived here in 2009, there were about 11 thousand. Now there are more - 90, almost 100 thousand. I think in terms of work, there are more opportunities. Bulgaria was, and still is, a great place for outsourcing operations in Europe. And also for start-ups, which have been growing over the years. Many of my classmates started companies in the start-up sector. So it's easy to see through their eyes how many opportunities there are here. And that's one of the great things here. It feels like a place of opportunity here although people don't always see it."

"As a photographer, I focus on Bulgarian traditions, so I capture not only daily life, but also traditions. My favorite is the Surva mummers festival. I love to capture the different costumes, the different traditions of the kukeri (mummers) but I also love to capture the life in Bulgaria. So for the past 15 years, in my photography I have been trying to capture the essence of the place, the essence of Bulgaria, in order to show it to the world."