Son

SON is a long-term personal project about one of Blagovesta Semkova’s children, who is on the autism spectrum, and her journey as a parent. For a long time, she struggled to accept his difference. Photography became a way to move closer to him, without pressure or the insistence that he change. Through the camera, she began to discover the beauty, sensitivity, and uniqueness of his way of being. Gradually, she realised that he was not the one who needed to change - she was: her expectations, the future she had imagined for him, and her understanding of what is “normal.”

The visual language of SON is built around contrasting states she observes in him: closeness and withdrawal, vulnerability and strength, calm and sudden intensity, a desire for connection and a need for solitude. Through fragmented, dreamlike, and sometimes almost fairy-tale images, she seeks to approach a world he experiences differently from her. The gradual emergence of colour reflects both the change in her perception and his growing connection with the outside world.

Although deeply personal, the project holds an experience familiar to many parents: letting go of expectations to see the person their child truly is. SON moves between his way of being and the demands surrounding him, asking how society encounters those who experience the world differently - how much space it allows them to be themselves, and how willing people are to change their own perspective.