MICHAELA VATCHEVA | Михаела

A little vibe from @triman.gr , the first triathlon I raced, which took place on May 9-10 in Olympiaki Akti, the Olympic Coast of Greece. Shoutout to both my amazing coaches @myendurance.life and @slavi_79 and to my teammates who left it all on the field! @hristinaterzieva9 , thanks for going out with me for my first open water swim 🙌🏽 And thank you @iordanis.papa for the great event ❤️‍🔥

I swam 750m in the Mediterranean Sea, biked 20km beneath Mount Olympus, then ran 5K along the coast. My first triathlon. My first race of any kind: Trifast by @triman.gr I tried listing everyone who helped me. Eight paragraphs later, I realized I was writing a new Silmarillion, not an insta caption. Triathlon’s a solitary sport. You train mostly alone, then race against yourself. It’s the right season in my life to turn inward, to build the calm I need to parent well. Triathlon requires predictability. On Sunday, I already know what Thursday will look like: when I’ll wake up, what we’ll eat, when I’ll train, how I can include the kid in the fun. When your work has no routine and your life exists across multiple places, structure feels like relief. Community comes with necessity: when you can’t afford to support 3 sports, when you’re new (to one or all three). I got so much gear, knowledge, training buddies, encouragement. If you’re a Balkan woman reading this and you’re thinking “I could never,” I’m talking to you. I started swimming regularly for the first time in January. I couldn’t afford a gym to access stationary bikes. A neighbor gave me her Peloton. I started running seriously in Feb. I didn’t even get to my bike until March. I raced in the one pair of running shoes I already owned, on my 10+ year old @feltbicycles road bike, wearing a jersey someone described as “classic” (@tenspeedhero ❤️‍🔥) My discounted wetsuit compressed my chest too tightly. I had zero open water experience. My coach, Momchil, @myendurancelife got in the water with me–on his birthday no less! I felt at home on my bike, I was in my element running, the rain didn’t bother me. My kid ran the last 100 meters and crossed the finish line with me. Later that evening, I found out I’d won first place in my division. My gender+age group is the fastest growing division in triathlon in the US. In the Balkans, it’s a tiny fraction. While my race results may not floor you in absolute terms, just finishing a Balkan triathlon as a woman entering my 40s is already extraordinary. And it’s giving me so much back. Come win with me 🙌🏽 Photos 1,3,5,7,8: @fototrexoume

One of the most meaningful stories I’ve worked on this year was Anya Schultz’ latest investigation for the @sfstandard . Emilia London—a sweet girl-next-door from a small town in Nor Cal—alleges that her ex, Michael “Mickey” Gerold, coerced her into sex work while moving her through San Francisco’s private club world. The reporting also examined how warnings about his recurring behavior with women circulated through parts of the city’s social scene long before London’s allegations became public. London wanted a public record to exist after years of not daring to trust herself, then being gaslit and attacked by her powerful ex. She wanted other women to understand how coercion can hide behind status, charm, and influence. She said she might have trusted herself sooner, had she read a story like this. Doing visuals for this story meant moving slowly and carefully: phone calls first, imagining what a safe space could look and feel like, then letting time pass. Thanks to @itstaylorle for making that trust-building approach possible. Eventually, we worked in her home, at her pace, with a lot of care, focusing on her resilience. She fell in love with this older, suave man. She moved into his luxury condo in a San Francisco skyscraper, got lost in a flashy world of parties and powerful people, until one day, she could no longer recognize herself. The poetry, songs, and paintings she’s created since stayed with me because of how deeply they searched for home: safety, predictability, gentleness. I truly saw parts of myself in that. The snake ring she wears is for the way snakes shed their old skin and emerge new. London alleges Gerold scheduled more than 100 men for her to sleep with and took over $100k from those appointments. She believed at first she was helping him through a tough situation and suddenly didn’t know how to get out. Grateful to have contributed to journalism that treats difficult testimony with seriousness and humanity. Congratulations to Anya for seeing this investigation through—even under threats from Gerold’s lawyers. Highly recommend reading the two stories and watching the podcast on SF Standard’s Youtube. 📷🖤

At @vital.impacts , we believe storytelling can illuminate, connect, and protect people, cultures, and ecosystems. We’re honored to collaborate with photographers like Esther Horvath (@estherhorvath ), whose work brings precision, empathy, and urgency to documenting climate change. A contributor photographer for National Geographic, a National Geographic Explorer, and a Nikon Ambassador, Esther captures the work of scientists in some of the most remote and extreme environments on Earth, revealing the human stories behind the data that shape our understanding of a rapidly changing planet. This year, Esther is mentoring Michaela Vatcheva (@mvatcheva ), supporting a long-term project tracing the fate of sturgeon along the Danube and the communities working across borders to restore a species central to cultural and ecological memory. Mentors like Esther are at the heart of this fellowship: guiding storytellers with care, curiosity, and commitment to work that matters—both for people and for the planet. 📷: @estherhorvath

The historic Castro theater @thecastro_sf reopened yesterday, February 6, 2026 after a two-year-long renovation. Dozens of the city’s most prominent drag performers took the stage Friday night, ahead of a screening of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” Read @astriduraniakane ’s story on the @sfstandard . Thank you for this heartwarming assignment @moxie_manda

The historic Castro theater @thecastro_sf reopened yesterday, February 6, 2026 after a two-year-long renovation. Dozens of the city’s most prominent drag performers took the stage Friday night, ahead of a screening of “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” Read @astriduraniakane ’s story on the @sfstandard . Thank you for this heartwarming assignment @moxie_manda

Celebrating Michaela Vatcheva, (@mvatcheva ) a 2026 Vital Impacts Environmental Photography Fellow. Michaela’s project traces the fate of sturgeon along the Danube—ancient fish that once migrated freely between the Black Sea and Central Europe, sustaining generations of fishing communities. Today, dams, ecological disruption, and economic decline have severed their 200-million-year journey.
 Her work documents a rare cross-border conservation effort as scientists race to reintroduce sturgeon, while riverside communities in Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia hold onto memory, identity, and reverence for a species that shaped their lives. As plans to bypass historic dams move forward, this project captures a critical moment—asking whether Europe is willing to repair what has been broken.
 She will receive one-on-one guidance from @natgeo explorer Esther Horvath (@estherhorvath ).
 At Vital Impacts, we believe storytelling plays a critical role in protecting people, cultures, and ecosystems. At a time when environmental journalism is increasingly underfunded and frontline communities are often unheard, we exist to build meaningful partnerships that support long-term, community-rooted work.
 Endless gratitude to our judges: @alessiaglaviano , @azubogu , @patkanephoto , @evgenia_arbugeva , and @kfmoran .

What fun. I got to photograph Children’s Fairyland @fairylandca for the @latimes ! Thank you @calagot 💕 “Fairyland aims to show the world through the eyes of a young’un — a place filled with curiosity, but also perhaps a bit off-kilter, where one can walk into a whale and find a fishbowl, slide down a dragon and get lost in an “Alice in Wonderland” maze of cards. Fairyland is considered the first “storybook”-style park in the country, launching a national fad. Legend has it that Walt Disney visited Fairyland while Disneyland was in the planning stages and was so taken with it that he poached some staff. Fairyland’s “magic keys,” which unlock audio tales throughout the park, were an innovation felt across numerous industries. And the park has been instrumental in the puppet space, home to what’s said to be the oldest ongoing puppet-focused theater in the country. It is Fairyland’s thesis that continues to feel revolutionary. And that’s a belief that the way to understand, learn and grow is via the stories we tell one another, and those narratives need no fancy tech or digital accouterments. [In comparison to other toddler-geared parks across the country], the nonprofit Fairyland is downright quaint in — tickets are under $20, with steeper discounts for Oakland residents. Surviving societal, technological and bureaucratic shifts, it’s become the little park that could, its durability a statement of defiance in our fast-paced, divisive world.” Read @toddmartens story with my photos in the @latimes 🌈✨💖

My grad school classmate @victoriashootsfilm took these portraits while I was crashing at her spot in Brooklyn in December. It’s been less than a month and it feels like years have gone by. The context around me switches often and dramatically these days and while I’m generally great at adapting, I’ve been yearning for the safety of predictability, for continuity. In these moments, bringing awareness to the things and people I’m grateful for has felt grounding. It’s been beautiful to see old friendships blossom. The voids in my life have opened up space for new friends, too, who have reminded me that I’ll still be seen by those who have the eyes to see me—and they do exist. The losses have taught me that every relationship takes two nervous systems capable and willing to co-regulate to thrive. So I work on accepting what I’m given. Thank you, Victoria, for sharing the safety of your home with me and for seeing me in the cute light ❤️‍🩹 Give @victoriashootsfilm a follow

@illy.stoilova and @kolevyoan ’s gorgeous surf session in Ahtopol after yesterday’s cleanup ❤️‍🔥

This Christmas, I joined my friends from @akashasurf on their mission to clean up two Black Sea beaches, Ahtopol and Arkutino, as part of their collaboration with @lessplasticbg , called “The Clean Christmass.” It was such a beautiful experience, seeing people come out to the beach on Christmas with their kids and grandkids, and parents, and dogs, and taking care of these spaces we love and enjoy all summer. They also showed care to one another and brought cookies and snacks they made to share. We distributed info about conserving our beaches and did a raffle. Cleaners could swap their bag of trash for a free book. The pictures are mixed from both days and there’s so much I didn’t capture because I was also cleaning. But I really wanted this beautiful initiative to leave a trace on my feed. It nurtured my tired soul and I hope it will inspire some of you to get together with your neighbors to take care of your favorite outdoor spots. Much love to @illy.stoilova @kolevyoan @paf.petrov & Maya Ivanova for taking me along 💕🌊

The 113th Annual New York Young Republican Club Gala took place at Cipriani Wall Street on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025. I covered it for @de_volkskrant in collaboration with writer @maralns 1 Markus Frohnmaier, vice-chairman of the far-right German party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), was a guest of honor and received the Allen W. Dulles Award for “the courageous work the AfD is doing in Germany’s repressive and hostile political climate.” Dovid Holtzman, New York Republican Club Policy Chairman, presented the award. 2 Details of guests’ Black Tie attire and the Allen W. Dulles Award trophy. 3 Guests celebrate during the gala 4 Members of the media were kept in a press zone away from the stage for the duration of the gala–the most restrictive measures any of the veteran journalists had seen in the past at this event. 5 A provocateur carrying a swastika interrupted the event, accusing club members of being nationalists. As he was thrown out, libertarian influencer Hayden McDougall @womanpropaganda , a guest of the gala, tore his swastika flag, screaming, “I wish Donald Trump was a Nazi!” Organizers distinguished themselves from the guest, saying he was speaking for himself. 6 Frohnmaier lost the young crowd when he began speaking of uniting the US and Germany to put an end to the era of Pax Americana, the postwar period of peace and security. “I honestly didn’t listen,” says Molly Nathaniel (31), who joined the Young Republican Club after the murder of right-wing conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. 7 Guests take selfies 8 “Nazis shouldn’t be given a platform in New York,” said Jordan Wright (31), the chair of the New York Young Democrats, who are demonstrating outside of Cipriani. 9 Security and guests are seen during the gala 10 Guests look for their tables before the dinner service 11 Staff stands by before the dinner service 12 Prayer and pledge of allegiance 13 High profile New York Young Republicans, among them Design Chairwoman and fiancée of the club President, Becky Oliveira (wearing purple). 14-18 Scenes pre- and post-dinner.