New Photobook "Occupy USA" Preserves an 18-City Visual Archive of the Occupy Movement

SOFIA, Bulgaria - Aug. 25, 2026 - PRLog -- Fifteen years after Occupy Wall Street transformed Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan into the birthplace of a nationwide protest movement, Bulgarian-American photographer Vance Petrunoff has published Occupy USA, a new 148-page photographic journey through Occupy encampments across the United States.

Published in softcover through Blurb, the book brings together photographs Petrunoff made while traveling through 18 Occupy communities between October 2011 and May 2012. His journey began in New York and continued through Chicago, Seattle, Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Sonoma, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Davis, Honolulu, and other cities.

Rather than concentrating primarily on confrontations, Petrunoff photographed the people and everyday life inside the camps: handmade signs, tents, kitchens, libraries, assemblies, music, conversations, and temporary communities created in public spaces.

"I did not set out to document history," Petrunoff says. "I went to Zuccotti Park because I wanted to see for myself what was happening. I walked in with my camera and had no idea that I was beginning a journey."

As the journey continued, Petrunoff began carrying prints from camps he had already visited to the next locations. The photographs were taped up, displayed on the ground, or passed from hand to hand. People in one city could see the faces, signs, and daily life of Occupy communities hundreds or thousands of miles away.

"Without planning it, I had created a kind of visual chain," Petrunoff says. "The photographs were no longer only a record. They were traveling with me and becoming part of the experience."

The project also carries personal meaning for the photographer. Born in Sofia, Petrunoff left communist Bulgaria in 1985 and came to the United States seeking political asylum. Twenty-six years later, he found himself photographing Americans gathering openly to speak, organize, and question political and economic institutions.

The complete documentary archive is organized chronologically at https://occupywallstreetphotos.org. Each of the 18 photographed Occupy communities links to its complete Flickr album. The public archive preserves more than 1,000 photographs for journalists, educators, researchers, curators, and the public.

The 2026 print edition follows the original digital edition of Occupy USA, published for the iPad by FotoEvidence in 2013. The new book is available at https://www.blurb.com/b/12969468-occupy-usa.

The project will be presented in a photography exhibition titled "We Are the 99%" at ONE Gallery in Sofia, opening on September 2, 2026, with a reception at 7:00 p.m.

High-resolution photographs, book-cover images, interviews, and additional information are available for editorial use upon request.