A provocative exhibition of art photography celebrating the beauty of the naked woman is showing at the Viking Gallery at 63 Tsar Simeon St. in Sofia. The Nude and Portrait exhibition contains 20 photos on display in the first solo project of photographer Petar Yankulov.

Black-and-white photos together with colour photography bring magic and intimacy to the gallery hall. The creator has shown particular parts or the whole of female bodies putting the accent on gentle contours and shades. Be it in a combination with sea and sand landscapes or spring flowers and violin, the female body emits tenderness, eroticism, warmth and sensuality.

"The naked body has been attracting artists for ages," Yankulov said. "Even the cave people made wall drawings of naked figures and erotic scenes."

The photographer underlined the slight difference between the naked body and eroticism. "A naked body could be presented in a non-erotic way. In my work, however, I have tried to insert eroticism."

According to the photographer all people, both men and women, have erotic fantasies. "I, as a man, have tried to show the male perspective," Yankulov explained, adding that some of the frames show things he has seen in his mind beforehand and has found beautiful.

The photographer expressed his surprise at the great interest shown by viewers. He noticed from his previous work that people usually find such photos provocative. There have been people, however, who have called the works pornographic.

"The line between pornography and good taste is very thin," Yankulov explained. "Pornography is not nakedness in itself. Pornography is aura. A fully-dressed body can have as pornographic a suggestion as a naked body."

Daniela Shishmanova, art manager of the Viking Gallery, did not find the works pornographic. "They are very lyrical," she said. Shishmanova explained that she invited the photographer to the gallery because in her view, art did not have any boundaries. Moreover, she confessed she liked provocations.

The photographs were taken in different sessions. Some of them were included in a calendar called Venus which Yankulov published last year. It was one of the seven calendars Yankulov completed in his Advertising Agency Yankulov.

He is a member of the Association of Advertising Photographers. He is also the initiator of the first Bulgarian photography website - www.photo.bg.

Even though he has not studied photography at a professional school and does not have a diploma, Yankulov has followed this passion from a very early age. This passion, however, was risky sometimes, especially during his years in the army. "I was included in the security of a military storehouse and as usual took my camera with me and was taking photos of the other guys there," Yankulov said. "When the officers found the photos they told me to tell them who I was working for. I spent two months in arrest."

All this is in the past though, and the present is concentrated on the beauty of the female body. The Nude and Portrait exhibition will be on view at Viking Gallery until November 10. The works are sold at 150 to 300 leva each.