ABSTRACT
Kiril Kirkov is patient. As a photographer he’ll wait for hours to get the right shot. For example, while in the Grand Canyon he saw a California condor sitting on a cliff. He approached it and waited. And waited. He wanted a shot of the bird flying. Four hours later, it took flight. And the photo would earn Kirkov awards. (See Figure 11.1.)
Kirkov grew up behind the Iron Curtain in Bulgaria and used to tour in a folklore dance company around the world. He migrated to the United States and got a job at the Grand Canyon. He later enrolled in classes at a community college in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he fell in love with anthropology. He completed his bachelor’s degree at Northern Arizona University, while also earning a minor in filmmaking. He’s trained as a visual anthropologist, he says, which allows him “to combine my training as an artist, as a stage choreographer, and my photographic sense of composition and light.”
