A-LONEliness is a storytelling project aimed to raise awareness and start a conversation about loneliness - the state mostly associated with elderly people, or those physically isolated. In reality, we are all affected to a different extent, and loneliness doesn’t necessarily have a particular age or face. In fact more and more young people are facing this issue today. With the racing speed of our daily life and social media pressure to have a perfect life we forget to connect with ourselves and people around. Behind every portrait there’s a personal story that breaks the taboo to speak openly about experiencing and overcoming the state of loneliness.

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Hey there, beautiful soul! 

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My name is Kristina and I am the creator of A-LONEliness project. The idea to collect stories from people who have experienced this unpleasant feeling of loneliness and combine it with my passion for photography was born in May, 2019. I just started volunteering service in Smokinya Foundation and had an unexplainable desire to share my own story and describe how it feels – to be lonely. 

It took me four months more to actually start the project and record my first ever interview with a friend of mine whose story you will find amongst the others. We started with no clue how to make it work with just one table lamp, camera and pure willingness to capture the beauty of storytelling. After a few weeks we did it again with another friend, and again, and after several interviews there were people who reached out to me willing to share their experience and have an open one-on-one conversation on camera. 

That’s how the first 15 stories including my own were collected. And that’s how A-LONEliness came to life as a part of volunteering service in a long-term project called offLINE in Smokinya Foundation in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

Smokinya Foundation is a Bulgarian NGO that serves as a learning platform for individuals who are ready to commit to their own learning and development needs. They create opportunities and provide space for people to learn, contribute and grow by participation, volunteering and project leadership. The result of my personal experience being a part of Smokinya Foundation for one year you can see on these pages.