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Anelia Kassabova
to the individual (Nora 1999; 2006; 2009; 2010; Assmann J. 1992; Assmann A.
2007). The complex and cumulative interplay between different media such as ar¬
chitecture, painting, and literature can be pursued in this process of sacralization.
The Shipka Pass battle in 1877, as well as the sacred places of the April Uprising of
1876, became sites of cumulative commemorative rites and developed through this
as the most important Bulgarian sites of collective memory’ (Kassabova 2012). A
political aesthetic developed in this process of constructing the nation as a suffering
and resistant community.
At the same time, photography itself developed as a commercial venture, with
substantial competition within it. At the end of the nineteenth century, the half
tone plate was introduced, which made possible the reproduction of photographs
in magazines, books, newspapers, and so on. A photographer could enjoy increased
circulation and exchange of his or her photos. The serial production of photographs
of revolutionists and recreated action scenes developed as an important market.
Those photographs, often made for big editions, were sold separately or in book
editions and later distributed in institutions such as schools, the army, or libraries.
‘The technical development in photography made possible a bigger audience and
the ability of the photographer to construct reality was an important factor in the
process of formation of historical memory. Focusing on the Bulgarian life-or-death
struggle, the aim was to solidarize and mobilize the society for the desired unifica¬
tion of the “carved-up [through the Treaty of the Congress in Berlin 1878—A. K.]
Bulgarian people’s body.” The photographs were required to play a positive role for
men by emphasizing, and thereby strengthening, their willingness to sacrifice their
lives for their fatherland. The photographer functioned less as a recorder and more as
a guide, and the consequence was that such an archive, in exerting the most salutary
influence, kindling the patriotism of subjects, strengthened people’s commitments
to the nation-state.
Men and Women in Folk Costumes—The Idealized Peasant Life
The normative representation of national heroes developed with an emphasis on
the ethnic Bulgarian. Ethnicity became a key concept because of inward solidarity
and outward demarcation. This explains the importance of the idea of “origins”:
the deeper the ethnic origins, the more they magnify the greatness of a nation.
The search for ancestry and roots was developed as a concept by the intelligen¬
tsia, who were concerned with the consolidation of the Bulgarian nation and its
mobilization for the modernization process and the national ideals. This can be
seen only in a broader context—the orientation toward genealogical investigations
corresponded to the European tradition of “Aristocratism” and Historism; the em¬
phasis on and the popularization of deep roots aimed at achieving international
> The Shipka battle of 1877 were picked up and praised by many generations of artists in both Bulgar¬
ian and Russian art such as in (monumental) paintings, poetry, and architecture.