© Jill Waterman.  Eva as Kukeri, New Year 2012 in Razlog, Bulgaria.

For the past 30 years, Jill Waterman has traveled annually to a different location to photograph traditional celebrations of the New Year. A year ago, she photographed in the mountain village of Razlog, Bulgaria, where goat-skin clad creatures called Kukeri and exuberant villagers in ceremonial Turkish attire parade through the streets on January 1 in a vigorous dance to ward off evil spirits.

Waterman, author of the 2008 book Night & Low Light Photography and editor for PDN Custom Media, is now in the mountains near Salzburg, Austria, to document the ominous masked figures called Perchten that visit small local villages in “the raw nights” between Christmas and Epiphany on January 6.

For more of Waterman’s New Year’s images from around the world, visit www.NewYearPhotos.com.

© Jill Waterman. Kukeri, Razlog, Bulgaria on New Year 2012.

© Jill Waterman. New Year Brides, Razlog, Bulgaria.

© Jill Waterman. New Year 2012, Traditional Dancer, Razlog, Bulgaria.

© Jill Waterman. Nighttime Procession, New Year 2012 in Razlog, Bulgaria.

© Jill Waterman. New Year Bells, Razlog, Bulgaria.