My name is Angelina Hadjimitoff and I am the great-granddaughter of the photographer Angel Hadjimitoff (1887–1962), one of the first photographers in Bulgaria and a chronicler of Samokov.

Over 100 years ago, he photographed the people and life in our town.

Today, I am digitising some of his glass photographic plates and publishing the photographs in the hope that someone might recognise a face, a name, a family, a house, or a story.

And this has already begun to happen.

Samokov has begun to recognise itself. People from our town are discovering their relatives, sharing names, family connections and memories. My great-grandfather’s archive has met the living memory of Samokov. From these recognitions came the next step: recording video stories with the descendants of the people in the photographs.

This is how ‘Zhiteynik Samokov’ was born .

The idea is for the old photograph to meet the living story.

Alongside the recognised photographs are the stories of the families, the descendants and the people who still hold the memory.

The photographs preserve the faces. The stories preserve the town.

The funds raised will help with the first phase of the project:

• digitisation and processing of archive photographs

• filming the first personal video stories

• editing the videos

• expert videos for the archive with the support of the Samokov History Museum

• an exhibition at the museum

• QR codes linking to the video stories

• basic digital archive module

Let’s work together to launch a living archive of Samokov’s memory.

Because behind every old photograph lie families, homes, destinies and voices.

And a person lives on as long as there is someone to tell their story.

Thank you to everyone who will support this initiative.

For the families. For Samokov. For future generations.

Angelina Hadjimitova