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MICHAELA VATCHEVA | Михаела

@mvatcheva

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💕 Mama ❤️‍🔥Founder @photoworkshop66 🙌🏽 Member: @juntosphoto @diversifyphoto @womenphotograph 🎓@berkeleyjournalism alum
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Михаела Вачева е фотожурналист с над 15 години опит в България и САЩ. Родена е в София, а корените ѝ водят към Ловеч и Стара Загора - градовете, в които Михаела прекарва всяко лято от детството си. Пораства в квартал Овча купел и завършва Немската гимназия, преди да замине да следва лингвистика и медийни науки в Германия. По пътя си минава през Erasmus в Англия, магистърска теза във Франция и в крайна сметка през втора магистратура по документалистика и фотожурналистика в Училището по журналистика на университета в Бъркли, Калифорния. Работила е като мултимедиен журналист в американската обществена телевизия PBS в Уисконсин и като видео продуцент в Google, преди да реши да се завърне в България. Днес Михаела е основател на "Фотоработилница 66" - безплатна фотографска школа, в която учи деца бежанци да разказват собствените си истории през обектива. Именно благодарение на този проект, част от “Ти и Lidl” през 2025 имах удоволствието да се запозная с нея. В момента работи и по дългогодишен фотографски проект за съдбата на българските есетри по река Дунав. 💬 „Това е фотография. Тя е някакъв вид медитация.“ ~Михаела Вачева В #ЕПИЗОД510 ще разбереш: ✅ Как изглежда пътят от Немската гимназия до Бъркли? ✅ Какво е феминизмът според Михаела? ✅ Как моята гостенка успява да е родител родител - стъпила между два континента? ✅ Как така триатлонът ѝ носи спокойствие и структура? 🎧 Чуй цялата история като последваш линка в описанието ✊ Подкрепи „Свръхчовекът с Георги Ненов" с дарение от сърце 👉линк в описанието 🧡 @superhosting.bg е компания, която с екипа неслучайно наричаме SUPERпартьор - ако си търсиш хостинг услуги или готин .bg домейн, погледни какво могат да ти предложат и се възползвай от свръхчовешка отстъпка 🧡 🐙 @veda.accountants поеха една от най-отговорните задачи, от които с екипа не разбираме - да се грижат за нашите финансови, административни и счетоводни предизвикателства. 💜 🙏 Благодарим на нашите партньори през 2026: SuperHosting.BG | Dynaphos | Decibel | VEDA Accounting | HyperScience | Oreshak Handmade | MasterCard 🙏 by @mvatcheva
10
12 days ago
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Y’all!! I finished my first Olympic distance triathlon last weekend!!! @tri.legend 🔥🔥🔥 I’m grateful for the privilege to train my body to do this stuff and I’m enjoying the crap out of it! My family’s support in caring for my little one during trainings sometimes and all the races is invaluable—thank you, mom and dad 💕 I’m incredibly grateful to my amazing coach @myendurance.life , my magical swimming coach @swimming_club_palazov and my waay OP nutrition coach @boris.sarabeev for continuing to teach me what it takes to be an endurance athlete ❤️‍🔥🙌🏽 Shoutout to my team—My Endurance Life—I love y’all! In the past 6 months, since I started working on this old dream of finishing a full IM as a mom, I have overcome some lifelong fears and limitations, gotten to know my body and my mind better and got myself from a very dark time to full on joy. I’m happy! Life is good! Lastly, I wanna leave you with the names of three mother-triathletes who inspire me and who help redefine who gets to be an endurance athlete in the Balkans: @zlati.mama.tri @wendypetrova and @venvivi85 🔥🔥🔥 taken in Цигов Чарк-Язовир Батак by @mvatcheva
40
10 days ago
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So stoked for my first bike race, @letapebulgaria, part of a @letourdefrance worldwide series. My buddy @vilislav2.0 told me on Thursday before the race that there were some free spots left and so we jumped on the train with our bikes the next day to end up in the Rhodope mountains (where part of my heart lives permanently ❤️‍🔥) We raced the 58k with 1090m denivelation. It was gorgeous, we made new friends along the way, found a last minute couch to stay on, laughed a lot and to all our surprise, I won my age group among 25 cyclists aged 40-49. I also ran into the awesome folks from @aquamatrixbg there, who sold me my glasses and my (controversial) jersey earlier at their store in Sofia! That jersey helped me connect with a lot of folks while pushing uphill. Most peeps laughed out loud when they saw my back 🙌🏽 I reassured those who felt a bit hurt that I’m pretty weaksauce going downhill at speed and the second half of the course was all downhill turns. Def lost quite a few positions there! Beyond being 1st in my age group, I finished 225th out of 636 cyclists and 11th woman overall. Pretty alright for a first race, I think! 🙌🏽❤️‍🔥 If you’re a woman and you wanna ride with me, hit me up! I think we need a girl crew or two. taken in Peshtera by @mvatcheva
7
5 days ago
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I swam 750m in the Mediterranean Sea, biked 20km beneath Mount Olympus, then ran 5K along the coast. My first triathlon. My first race of any kind: Trifast by @triman.gr I tried listing everyone who helped me. Eight paragraphs later, I realized I was writing a new Silmarillion, not an insta caption. Triathlon’s a solitary sport. You train mostly alone, then race against yourself. It’s the right season in my life to turn inward, to build the calm I need to parent well. Triathlon requires predictability. On Sunday, I already know what Thursday will look like: when I’ll wake up, what we’ll eat, when I’ll train, how I can include the kid in the fun. When your work has no routine and your life exists across multiple places, structure feels like relief. Community comes with necessity: when you can’t afford to support 3 sports, when you’re new (to one or all three). I got so much gear, knowledge, training buddies, encouragement. If you’re a Balkan woman reading this and you’re thinking “I could never,” I’m talking to you. I started swimming regularly for the first time in January. I couldn’t afford a gym to access stationary bikes. A neighbor gave me her Peloton. I started running seriously in Feb. I didn’t even get to my bike until March. I raced in the one pair of running shoes I already owned, on my 10+ year old @feltbicycles road bike, wearing a jersey someone described as “classic” (@tenspeedhero ❤️‍🔥) My discounted wetsuit compressed my chest too tightly. I had zero open water experience. My coach, Momchil, @myendurancelife got in the water with me–on his birthday no less! I felt at home on my bike, I was in my element running, the rain didn’t bother me. My kid ran the last 100 meters and crossed the finish line with me. Later that evening, I found out I’d won first place in my division. My gender+age group is the fastest growing division in triathlon in the US. In the Balkans, it’s a tiny fraction. While my race results may not floor you in absolute terms, just finishing a Balkan triathlon as a woman entering my 40s is already extraordinary. And it’s giving me so much back. Come win with me 🙌🏽 Photos 1,3,5,7,8: @fototrexoume taken in Olympiakí Aktí, Pieria, Greece by @mvatcheva
30
2 months ago
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A little vibe from @triman.gr, the first triathlon I raced, which took place on May 9-10 in Olympiaki Akti, the Olympic Coast of Greece. Shoutout to both my amazing coaches @myendurance.life and @slavi_79 and to my teammates who left it all on the field! @hristinaterzieva9, thanks for going out with me for my first open water swim 🙌🏽 And thank you @iordanis.papa for the great event ❤️‍🔥 by @mvatcheva
0
2 months ago
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One of the most meaningful stories I’ve worked on this year was Anya Schultz’ latest investigation for the @sfstandard . Emilia London—a sweet girl-next-door from a small town in Nor Cal—alleges that her ex, Michael “Mickey” Gerold, coerced her into sex work while moving her through San Francisco’s private club world. The reporting also examined how warnings about his recurring behavior with women circulated through parts of the city’s social scene long before London’s allegations became public. London wanted a public record to exist after years of not daring to trust herself, then being gaslit and attacked by her powerful ex. She wanted other women to understand how coercion can hide behind status, charm, and influence. She said she might have trusted herself sooner, had she read a story like this. Doing visuals for this story meant moving slowly and carefully: phone calls first, imagining what a safe space could look and feel like, then letting time pass. Thanks to @itstaylorle for making that trust-building approach possible. Eventually, we worked in her home, at her pace, with a lot of care, focusing on her resilience. She fell in love with this older, suave man. She moved into his luxury condo in a San Francisco skyscraper, got lost in a flashy world of parties and powerful people, until one day, she could no longer recognize herself. The poetry, songs, and paintings she’s created since stayed with me because of how deeply they searched for home: safety, predictability, gentleness. I truly saw parts of myself in that. The snake ring she wears is for the way snakes shed their old skin and emerge new. London alleges Gerold scheduled more than 100 men for her to sleep with and took over $100k from those appointments. She believed at first she was helping him through a tough situation and suddenly didn’t know how to get out. Grateful to have contributed to journalism that treats difficult testimony with seriousness and humanity. Congratulations to Anya for seeing this investigation through—even under threats from Gerold’s lawyers. Highly recommend reading the two stories and watching the podcast on SF Standard’s Youtube. 📷🖤 taken in San Francisco, California by @mvatcheva
11
4 months ago
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At @vital.impacts, we believe storytelling can illuminate, connect, and protect people, cultures, and ecosystems. We’re honored to collaborate with photographers like Esther Horvath (@estherhorvath), whose work brings precision, empathy, and urgency to documenting climate change. A contributor photographer for National Geographic, a National Geographic Explorer, and a Nikon Ambassador, Esther captures the work of scientists in some of the most remote and extreme environments on Earth, revealing the human stories behind the data that shape our understanding of a rapidly changing planet. This year, Esther is mentoring Michaela Vatcheva (@mvatcheva), supporting a long-term project tracing the fate of sturgeon along the Danube and the communities working across borders to restore a species central to cultural and ecological memory. Mentors like Esther are at the heart of this fellowship: guiding storytellers with care, curiosity, and commitment to work that matters—both for people and for the planet. 📷: @estherhorvath by @mvatcheva
10
4 months ago
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Celebrating Michaela Vatcheva, (@mvatcheva) a 2026 Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Fellow. Michaela’s project traces the fate of sturgeon along the Danube—ancient fish that once migrated freely between the Black Sea and Central Europe, sustaining generations of fishing communities. Today, dams, ecological disruption, and economic decline have severed their 200-million-year journey.
 Her work documents a rare cross-border conservation effort as scientists race to reintroduce sturgeon, while riverside communities in Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia hold onto memory, identity, and reverence for a species that shaped their lives. As plans to bypass historic dams move forward, this project captures a critical moment—asking whether Europe is willing to repair what has been broken.
 She will receive one-on-one guidance from @natgeo explorer Esther Horvath (@estherhorvath).
 At Vital Impacts, we believe storytelling plays a critical role in protecting people, cultures, and ecosystems. At a time when environmental journalism is increasingly underfunded and frontline communities are often unheard, we exist to build meaningful partnerships that support long-term, community-rooted work.
 Endless gratitude to our judges: @alessiaglaviano, @azubogu, @patkanephoto, @evgenia_arbugeva, and @kfmoran. by @mvatcheva
21
6 months ago
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This Christmas, I joined my friends from @akashasurf on their mission to clean up two Black Sea beaches, Ahtopol and Arkutino, as part of their collaboration with @lessplasticbg, called “The Clean Christmass.” It was such a beautiful experience, seeing people come out to the beach on Christmas with their kids and grandkids, and parents, and dogs, and taking care of these spaces we love and enjoy all summer. They also showed care to one another and brought cookies and snacks they made to share. We distributed info about conserving our beaches and did a raffle. Cleaners could swap their bag of trash for a free book. The pictures are mixed from both days and there’s so much I didn’t capture because I was also cleaning. But I really wanted this beautiful initiative to leave a trace on my feed. It nurtured my tired soul and I hope it will inspire some of you to get together with your neighbors to take care of your favorite outdoor spots. Much love to @illy.stoilova @kolevyoan @paf.petrov & Maya Ivanova for taking me along 💕🌊 by @mvatcheva
7
7 months ago
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My grad school classmate @victoriashootsfilm took these portraits while I was crashing at her spot in Brooklyn in December. It’s been less than a month and it feels like years have gone by. The context around me switches often and dramatically these days and while I’m generally great at adapting, I’ve been yearning for the safety of predictability, for continuity. In these moments, bringing awareness to the things and people I’m grateful for has felt grounding. It’s been beautiful to see old friendships blossom. The voids in my life have opened up space for new friends, too, who have reminded me that I’ll still be seen by those who have the eyes to see me—and they do exist. The losses have taught me that every relationship takes two nervous systems capable and willing to co-regulate to thrive. So I work on accepting what I’m given. Thank you, Victoria, for sharing the safety of your home with me and for seeing me in the cute light ❤️‍🩹 Give @victoriashootsfilm a follow taken in Brooklyn, New York by @mvatcheva
17
6 months ago
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“After federal loans helped Jennifer Lee pay down debt and keep her diner afloat during the pandemic, she racked up tens of thousands in new credit-card balances.“ When @rsm.png first called me to work on a story on borrowers falling behind on debt after pandemic aid ran out, I didn’t expect it to be the most touching assignment I’d work on all year. I got to spend a day with a small business owner who was also the mom of a toddler. And that mom, Jennifer Lee, was all of us American toddler moms ca. 2024. Pushing two XL carts through Costco, baby strapped to her back trying to take off mama’s glasses, wiping snot in her hair, asking for a snack. While mama worked a cook-prepper-waitress-cleaner shift in her dream-come-true diner, toddler lay on the floor watching cartoons, greeted customers in baby babbles, drank half and half, or demanded to participate in cleaning the grapes in the kitchen sink. But for American toddler moms in 2024, it’s not simply a matter of juggling the work we love with child care. That’s tough, but we make it work. “People fell behind on credit-card bills and car payments more often in 2024 than any point since the aftermath of the Great Recession.” “pressure that is disproportionately hitting people on the lower extreme of the credit spectrum.” “Even for people who have kept their score steady by making payments, higher prices and interest rates are proving to be a double whammy.” And so, Jennifer Lee’s small, family-run Break Your Fast restaurant, which survived the pandemic in part thanks to two federal loans totaling $115,000, is likely going to get sold. Thank you to Rachel Mendelson for being a truly intentional editor. Read David Uberti and Katherine Hamilton’s story on @wsj 💘 taken in Break Your Fast by @mvatcheva
11
2 years ago
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The historic Castro theater @thecastro_sf reopened yesterday, February 6, 2026 after a two-year-long renovation. Dozens of the city’s most prominent drag performers took the stage Friday night, ahead of a screening of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” Read @astriduraniakane’s story on the @sfstandard. Thank you for this heartwarming assignment @moxie_manda by @mvatcheva
1
6 months ago
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