About
Ivaylo Donchev was born in 1989 in Sliven, Bulgaria. His enthusiasm for sports was ignited at the age of just 3 when he took up skiing, but it was skateboarding that threw photography into the mix when one day he grabbed a small 35 mm film camera and took some random photos of his friends skateboarding. And as with every lasting story, the rest is history.
In an unusual twist of fate, after a few injuries, being behind the camera turned out the be the best way to stay close to his skateboarding passion so he gradually developed his photography and filmmaking skills, creating some of the most recognised skate movies in Bulgaria.
While studying a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture, Ivaylo continued to discover the various angles of photography and filmmaking and hone his skills in and away from skateboarding. He continued to follow his curiosity for art by joining the Royal Academy of Arts in the Hague, Netherlands to study Documentary Photography.
The link between documentary and extreme sports photography may not be as straightforward to anyone else, but it came naturally to Ivaylo as he wanted his photography to uncover the stories not just behind the achievements of professional athletes, but also how the human body and mind can be taken to such extremes:
“Everyone sees things differently so to reach more people with my work, I have to be able to show it in multiple perspectives, revealing more layers of a certain sport. My degree in architecture inspired me to find unusual, more refreshing ways to blend the environment, the athlete, the trick, the timing...and still manage to tell the whole story in one image or in a series of images.”
At the moment Ivaylo is based in Sofia, but regularly travels nationally and internationally covering many different projects across the globe:
“I am always excited to get involved with new projects - it’s incredible when you do something, anything, for the first time and finding such unknown challenges is up there in my list of favourite things to do. It’s how you learn the most, the best way to grow!”
As a photographer & filmmaker, Ivaylo has a number of accomplishments,
some of them which are:
RED BULL PHOTOGRAPHY
Official member and licensed Red Bull Photographer since January 2021
PHOTO CONTESTS
Red Bull illume 2019 - Semi Finalist
EXHIBITIONS
“#SHOOTMORE” - Burgas, 2019
“The Unknown North” - Photosyntesis, Sofia, 2019
“Forever” - Burgas, December 2016
"Izgrev" - Burgas, August 2017
PUBLICATIONS
360 magazine - interview
“Boulevard magazine” - publications 2006-2010
Bulgarian magazine for skateboarding culture“Whiteroom magazine” - publications 2015-2016
Bulgarian snowboard magazineRotten magazine - publications 2018
(1st issue UK lifestyle magazine)
AWARDS
“Exit Extreme Film Festival”- 1st prize in
Best extreme sports film category, 2009“Go Show Film Festival”- shortlisted in
Best extreme sports film category, 2017