I find myself interested in fences in Bulgaria.

Fences as you know are meant to keep unwanted people and things off of your property or alternately on your property. Fences demarcate what is yours.  Fences also often provide some semblance of privacy--you can't see what I am doing behind my fence. Fences draw a line between what is public and what is private.

<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="Fence in Elena" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6044624461/"><img class="alignnone" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6208/6044624461_57b246ec3b_b.jpg" alt="Fence in Elena" width="1024" height="683" /></a>

So whenever I get the chance I look over fences. I peer through gaps in fences. I take pictures of what I see.

I wonder: what's going on back there? what's happening on the other side of the fence? <!--more-->

In the States we build fences to keep children, pets and farm animals in (as well as to safe guard them) and to keep everyone else out. Often this is both to physically keep someone out but to also keep their prying eyes out of our business.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="614" caption="Flowers through a Fence"]<a class="tt-flickr tt-flickr-Large" title="flowers through a fence" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/29050866@N06/6044624783/"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6198/6044624783_01e7743348_b.jpg" alt="flowers through a fence" width="614" height="410" /></a>[/caption]

It's for all of these reasons that I am drawn to fences in Bulgaria. I want to see what the fence is protecting, guarding, safe-keeping. I want to glance over someone's fence and into their yard because I hope that in doing so I'll get a glimpse of this person's life.

Many times in Bulgaria fences are slightly depressing.

The depressing fences no longer stand straight or need to be repaired or patched. No one looks after the fence anymore. I guess there's no need to take care of a fence if you don't value what's behind it.  But a fence suggests that at some point, someone cared. They cared enough to build it, to put it up.  And I wonder: what happened? what changed?

Of course, I can guess what happened and what changed but none of these guesses are very happy.  They include death, apathy, old age and abandonment.

In my mind the best fences protect something unexpected, something beautiful. Flowers for example.