Light painting for Ilinden 2. Photographs taken during the Ilinden Uprising (1903)

                                     

In the summer and autumn of 1903, the English journalist Reginald Wyon (1872 – 1921) visited the Balkans several times to cover the course of the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising. He managed to cross the border with the Ottoman Empire and traveled around Macedonia and Edirne region. 

His reports in these areas were published in the Daily Mail. In addition to being a special correspondent for this popular London daily paper, Wyon also collaborated with the Sphere, an illustrated newspaper, which published dozens of his photographs taken in the rebel-held areas. Subsequently, Wyon himself illustrated his book The Balkans from within (1904) with 104 photographs. 

It turns out that one third of them were taken in Bulgaria – this fact provoked the research interest of the author to write this article.