This was really *the* D-day for about 114 roma families who lived at both sides of the river. It’s actually quite sad when you think you actually had a couple of friends over there. Now they’re scattered all over Belgrade and Serbia.
Sanja’s photos might give you a clue of what the atmosphere was like.
Last couple of days I was trying to figure out exactly how to start that Roma-kids project I mentioned a while ago. Some conceptual issues are still bugging me, while I try to collect all the equipment I need. Not to mention their settlement under the Gazella bridge will be dislocated (read: buldozed) in next few days! I must react quickly.
I have definitely decided to go for slide film, medium format—6x7 cm (bye-bye money savings!). Apart from the kids dressed in their best outfits, I’ll try to portrait their parents too, and possibly get that “displacement” context with the different backgrounds. At first there’s bridge in the back, and all the hand-made carton “houses” (their current living space), then stuff being moved / crushed in the back (possibly with their angry/sad faces), and then the new metal containers (new, “sterile” homes).
I hope this will all work out.
Or maybe I shouldn’t tell you all this stuff? :-)
![After taking this photo, I thought “this is it, the photo which shows the festival” [Belgrade Beer Festival 2009] Later I realised it was something else—an image of what I wanted the Festival to be. Couples holding each other, blessed by the music and whole atmosphere around them. But as I think of it, the festival is only blessed by a bunch of different brands of beer and not so good music [personal taste]. Everyone being (almost) drunk for no fuc-ing reason apart from the fact it’s a “beer festival”. I wonder what would it look like if it was a water or milk festival, but with much better music program. Would it come even close?
Anyway, something was missing, and I actually think I photographed that something. Which definitely sounds imposible, if you were to constrain yourself to traditional “we capture the visible” idea. :)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kofz39lsdJ1qzgt62o1_500.jpg)
After taking this photo, I thought “this is it, the photo which shows the festival” [Belgrade Beer Festival 2009] Later I realised it was something else—an image of what I wanted the Festival to be. Couples holding each other, blessed by the music and whole atmosphere around them. But as I think of it, the festival is only blessed by a bunch of different brands of beer and not so good music [personal taste]. Everyone being (almost) drunk for no fuc-ing reason apart from the fact it’s a “beer festival”. I wonder what would it look like if it was a water or milk festival, but with much better music program. Would it come even close?
Anyway, something was missing, and I actually think I photographed that something. Which definitely sounds imposible, if you were to constrain yourself to traditional “we capture the visible” idea. :)
Bumper (or dodgem) car ride at Beer Fest in Belgrade, 2009. You just have to take your camera with you, to at least try to bring those moments back! Woooo-hooooo!
“ Aside from the atrocities they depict, as photographs,
the images from Abu Ghraib contradict
the studied heroics of twentieth-century
war photography that have been updated to
the current conflict. Away from the photojournalistic
flourishes designed to make war palatable—the
heroic flag-raisings, the dogged foot
soldiers close to the action, the sense of shared
humanity among combatants, and the search
for visual evidence that war is universal and inevitable—the
often-banal JPEGs from Iraq proffer
a very, different picture: war is systematic
cruelty enforced at the level of everyday torture. ”
—How p&s photos from Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq (taken in 2005) redefine war photography. [see the original]
I just love her photos! If you haven’t seen them already, click that link. And follow.
(and hurray, more people from Serbia on Tumblr!)
Marija of Abonos band, portrait with a guitar. I think I should forward this to the guitar manufecturer, they might like it. Oh, who wouldn’t? *innocent*
