The British Vanessa Winship traveled to the shores of the Black Sea eight times over a period of many months. She photographed exclusively in black and white on her travels to the six coastal countries of Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and Georgia. They were trips back to past decades. Quiet fishing villages in Romania, magnificent monumental buildings from the Stalin era in Russia, orthodox believers lost in prayer in Georgia, eager students in the Ukraine, proud prize wrestlers in Turkey or archaic donkey carts in Bulgaria – Vanessa Winship always captured images full of melancholy and deep calm. In her portraits she shows people who mysteriously feel unnoticed. Despite all sympathetic observation, Winship always proves her masterful handling of light.

Vanessa Winship, born in England in 1960, studied film, video and photography at Westminster University in London. Since 1992 she has been working as a freelance photographer. She has shown her work in several national and international solo exhibitions. In 1998 she was honored with the first prize of the World Press Photo Award in the category 'Art stories'. Vanessa Winship lives in Istanbul.