GRAIN Digital
street and documentary photography magazine No.10, December 2017. www.grain.rs
HRVOJE POLAN Genocide is a system
Interview
JOHN BOLLOTEN
BRADFORD NOTHING TO SEE HERE
intro On our second birthday, we made a big decision. As of this issue, GRAIN magazine goes international. English language only. Photography is universal language, theres no need to explain visual emotions and expressions. As always, we will continue straight and hard, with some new ideas and improvements. According to magazine layout, we made a decision to decrease number of pages from 144 to 100, listening to your suggestions. But we will go every two months with new release. We have gone throuhgh many situations during past two years, ups and downs but those situations made us only stronger. Some results and efforts, you will witness in February 2018, at the second GRAIN ANNUAL exhibition, just on time to hit new, regular GRAIN release #11. There were many essays planned to be published in this issue, but most of them youll see in upcoming number. GRAIN ANNUAL will present 37 selected photographs and photographers from recent issues. Also, we will promote printed monochrome photo book dedicated to 25 great documentary photographers from former Yugoslavia whose photos were in GRAIN. Not to forget GRAIN FEST in Užice, planned as a main GRAIN event in 2018, but lets stop here and leave some goods for later :) We are happy to anounce a great collaboration between GRAIN and PHOTOJAJS photography team from Calcuta, India. The first results are here - we will host great photographers from India, and our photographers will be on the pages of one of the most important photo magazine in India. So, enjoy this issue. May the light be with you. With compliments,
Igor Čoko and Tamara Petrović
#10 CONTENT 003 006 007 008 010 014
Intro Life Wild moment Events: Press photo Srbija Awards Hrvoje Polan: Genocide is a system Miloš Cvetković Cvele: UNLEARNED LESSONS from the Ninetees
030 Interview: John Bolloten - Bradford, nothing to see 050 Aleksandra Leković: Shelter 064 074 084 090
Joydeep Mukherjee: A day at the beach Elisa Tomaselli: Collecting souls Nemanja Đorđević: Honesty The London Vagabound: Nudity and fetishizm
IMPRESSUM: Digital Grain, digital magazine showcasing street and documentary photography. Issue #10. December 2017. Editor: Igor Čoko Instagram page editor: Vladimir Živojinović Creative team: Tamara Petrović, Mira Vujović, Vukašin Danilović, Narnya Imbrin Publisher: GRAIN, Husinskih rudara3/11 11060 Belgrade, SERBIA www.grain.rs www.issuu.com/digitalgrain https://www.facebook.com/grainphotomagazine/ Instagram: @grain_magazine E mail: magazin.grain@gmail.com Photo credits: Cover: John Bolloten Copyright: Using photographs from Grain magazine is not allowed without autors permission. Photographs are protected and alowed to use just for Grain magazine purpose.
LIFE
Life of fishermen is one of the hardest way to survive. Fishermen are real, true heroes, fighting with sea, storms, spending most of their life off the ground. Among with miners they deserve to be threaten as a heroes. Ivan Kosić is croatian photographer and fisheman at the same. In the next issue, you will see his grat essay about life, sea and permanent struggle. Photo by: Ivan Kosić
WILD MOMENT
Hague Tribunal ended its mission. Generals are defeted. Some of them will end in jail, some of them ended in court. But among most of population they will reamin heroes. A new myths and fairytales will go around. But most of their victims, wont be in situation to hear it. Like those civilians taken from Srebrenica in unknown direction, with no happy end. Photo by: Miloť Cvetković Cvele, Srebrenica 1995.
EVENTS : PRESS PHOTO SRBIJA AWARDS 2017.
“Press Photo Serbia” is the most important event in serbian photography, held for the nineteenth time during “Vizualizator” festival of photography, Press photo Serbia gaining affirmation of photo journalism in Serbia, high artistic and professional standards, besides the key role of ethics in photographic and related professional communities, are in the focus of the project, featured through the best works of Serbian photographers. Winners in 2017. are: Mitar Mitrović - Main award for his photo taken in refugee camp near Belgrade Waterfront. Saša Preradović - category „Enviroment“ Željko Sinobad - category „Enviroment - Reportage“ Mitar Mitrović - category „News“ Miloš Bičanski - category „News reportage“ Irfan Ličina - category „Life“ Igor Čoko - category „Life reportage“ This year Jury was: Marko Đurica - Jury president and Reuters agency photographer, Dalibor Danilović - photographer at “Glorija“ magazine, Ken Kobre - professor at photojurnalism at the University of San Francisco, Sanja Knežević, photographer and Predrag Uzelac - professor at Academy of fine arts in Novi Sad.
Irfan Ličina
Miloš Bičanski
Mitar Mitrović
Saša Preradović
Željko Sinobad
GENOCIDE IS A SYSTEM
by: Ed Vulliamy / photo: Hrvoje Polan
Fikret Alic, famous emaciated prisoner of Trnopolje concentration camp 25 years later in front of notorious "White House" inside of Omarska concentration camp near northwestern Bosnian town of Prijedor
"General Ratko Mladic, the most bloodthirsty warlord to strut European soil since the Third Reich, will die in jail. Any other outcome after today’s verdict in The Hague would have been preposterous. He faced two counts of genocide: one for Srebrenica, the other for what happened in the “municipalities” elsewhere in Bosnia. Here serial atrocities were committed by troops under Mladic’s direct command over those years, while the international community dithered, and worse. The whole idea of the Hague tribunal was as much an act of contrition for that failure as it was ambition for international justice. Mladic’s pogroms included more mass-murder, torture, mutilation and rape, in the camps at Omarska, Trnopolje and Keretem in north-west Bosnia. To the east, in Višegrad, civilians – including babies – were herded alive into houses for incineration, or down to a bridge to be shot, or chopped into pieces, and hurled into the river Drina. Then there was the wholesale demolition of countless towns and villages, and the “cleansing” of all non-Serbs, by death or deportation; the razing of mosques and Catholic churches; the gathering of women and girls into camps for violation all night, every night. And the rest. None of this, apparently, is genocide. Mladic was acquitted on that count. This raises the question: then what is?" (EdVulliamy,TheGuardian)
Satko Mujagic, survivor of Omarska and Manjaca concentration camp.
Dzemal Paratusic, 25 years later stands inside of notorious "White House" in Omarska concentration camp between white balloons, with the names of thousands of “not substantial proportion� brutally killed victims, about to be released over the worst concentration camp on Europe soil after the WW2
Nusreta Sivac, former judge from Prijedor and survivor of worst atrocities on notorious Omarska concentration camp gestures as she mourns in front of today forbiddent doors of her nightmare, doors where she spent several months of torture.
UNLEARNED LESSONS
FROM THE NINETEES photo essay by: Miloš Cvetković Cvele
Miloš Cvetković Cvele, serbian photographer is one of those who withessed the bloody breakdown of Yugoslavia in the most dramatic and “poetic” way, always went step forward into danger. Thats why his photographs are maybe the strongest documents from the civil wars in former Yugoslavia. With the manners of pure professional, he was not popular among serbian military authorities, because he was shooting drunken serbian soldiers reading porn magazines, naked Bosnian moslem prisoners, far away from war ethics and myth about untouchable serbian generals, ended in Hague at the end of the story. Each of his photographs is a testament of war, but unlearned lessons after all of these years... Miloš Cvetković was born in Užice, Serbia in 1950. He is professional and award winning photographer since 1976. His photographs were published in medias such are “International Herald Tribune”, “Independent”, “Daily Telegraph”, “Washington Post”, “Toronto Star”, “El Pais”, “Time”, “Stern”, “Spiegel”, “Newsweek”, “Paris Match”...
Belgrade, March 9th 1991. Demonstrations against Slobodan Miloťević
Struga, Croatia, 1991. Death crates preparatrions for dead serbian soldiers
OdĹžaci, Serbia 1991. Ucrainian prostitute dancing in front of serbian soldiers before the battle
Skelani, Bosnia 1992. Serbian soldiers relaxing in the shade of a tall tree
Vukovar, Croatia 1991. Serbian soldier after the battle
ViĹĄegrad, Bosnia 1992. Scene from the battlefield among serbian soldiers
Skelani, Bosnia 1992. Scene from the battlefield among serbian soldiers
Velika Kladuša, Bosnia 1992. Moslem soldier from “Western Bosnia” military fraction fighting against 5th Corps of Bosnian Army
Bratunac, Bosnia 1992. Last farewell to killed serbian soldier
Srebrenica, Bosnia 1995. Serbian soldier checking abandoned city
Srebrenica, Potocari, Bosnia 1995. Remains of stuff belonged to moslem civilians taken off from the city
Slivovica village, Serbia 1995. Bosnian moslems war prisoners from Srebrenica and Zepa region
Slivovica village, Serbia 1995. Bosnian moslems war prisoners from Srebrenica and Zepa region
INTERVIEW: JOHN BOLLOTEN, Photographer
BRADFORD
NOTHING TO SEE HERE
My city has always had a dark side but no-one had ever gone this far before in documenting the harsh reality of Bradford life. I knew Bradford well having lived and worked here for over 35 years and understood the mentality of the people. Therefore, I didn’t need to go elsewhere. I could go out everyday and build up a strong body of work. Photographing on the street here is never easy and people are suspicious of photographers. Getting insulted, or even worse, a physical confrontation is an ever-present hazard...
British photographer John Bolloten is based in the northern English city of Bradford, one of the most deprived places in the UK. One hundred and fifty years ago Bradford was one of the richest cities in the world due to the riches generated by the industrial revolution but for many years now it has faced economic decline and has significant levels of poverty. It is also one of the most ethnically-diverse places in the UK where over a hundred nationalities live and has experienced enormous levels of immigration. The present government’s brutal austerity policies over the last seven years have hit residents hard and has led to large amounts of homelessness and even more difficult challenges for the city’s dependent drug users. It is within this context that John spent two years working on his latest book Nothing To See Here (published by Fistful Of Books), a monochrome tome that bears witness to the gritty underbelly of Bradford. Images of people injecting heroin, smoking crack cocaine and overdosing from spice are mixed with photos of local sex workers, alcoholics and a close look at the hard lives of homeless people.
After flirting for a couple of years with pure street photography, John says he got bored with a lot of it and much of the gimmicks in the genre and decided to mainly focus on work that was deeper and more meaningful. Asked for his key influences, he immediately mentions names like Don McCullin, Boogie, Miron Zownir, Eugene Richards, Scot Sothern and Josef Koudelka. He says ”all of these photographers immersed themselves into particular communities and(sub)cultures and produced stunning work that really hits you on an emotional level. I knew I had to go much deeper with my own work and head to the frontlines”. He goes on, “my city has always had a dark side but no-one had ever gone this far before in documenting the harsh reality of Bradford life. I knew Bradford well having lived and worked here for over 35 years and understood the mentality of the people. Therefore, I didn’t need to go elsewhere. I could go out everyday and build up a strong body of work. Photographing on the street here is never easy and people are suspicious of photographers. Getting insulted, or even worse, a physical confrontation is an ever-present hazard. However, on the whole people can be quite warm and friendly once they have sussed you out so the best tools I really had was being genuine, honest and being interested in them. I didn’t want to just grab random shots of homeless people camped out in doorways. I wanted to get to know them and document their existence honestly.”
Nothing To See Here took him to his physical and emotional limits. He says “I knew that making this work had many risks attached to it. I was spending time with very vulnerable people with unbelievably challenging lives and I could only successfully complete this project if I had their trust. On many occasions I photographed people injecting heroin and crack in outdoor shooting galleries and was around people clearly worse for wear through their heavy drug and/or alcohol use. I got verbally abused a few times and once I was physically assaulted. However, I chose to dig deep and keep working so that I could make sure that I had enough material with depth.�
At 52 years of age, John was a late developer when it came to photography and only bought his first camera eight and a half years ago. Like most, he says that the first three or four years was spent taking “rubbish shots” until he found his own style and started to specialise in social documentary photography, often with a large dose of classic street photography thrown in. His first long-term project (six years) focused on the ageing figures of the original era of UK punk rock called Punk Survivors, a large archive of work that has not yet been published. His first book of street photography Bradford Street came out in 2014 and soon sold out and was followed the following year by Belgrade, shot over the course of 6 days in the Serbian capital. John was inspired to visit and shoot in Belgrade after discovering Boogie’s book about the city, a book that John describes as a “textbook way to photograph one’s own neighbourhood in depth”. He met and spent some time with Boogie while there and states that “I learned a lot from a photographer that I really admired and it helped me focus more on the type of photography I really wanted to make”.
Many of the photographs in Nothing To See Here make grim viewing. A man with a badly-bruised eye and another with a deep cut to his forehead after being hit with a beer can. A young woman with a badly-scarred arm from cutting herself. A female spice overdose casualty with her eyes to the sky, appearing to be somewhere between life and death (“she almost did die” John says). Various photographs show partial nudity and bodies bearing the physical effects of years of abuse. But there are other softer, more heart-warming and humorous moments too. The sense of community, some larking around and a tender embrace between a younger couple. John stresses that “the important thing for me was to be a human being first and photograph all of these people with respect. I was not interested in putting across any moral view about the individuals I photographed or the activities they were doing. I just wanted to capture these moments without judgement.” John also says that “my book is simply just a witness to what I saw in the world of drug dependence, alcoholism, destitution, homelessness and prostitution. It has no other role than that. This kind of work can be easily misunderstood, including the motives of the photographer, but I am not interested in engaging in discussion about this as often those who express dislike or disgust will likely never understand this work anyway. Like those photographers who say that one should never photograph the homeless. Why not? They are part of society like everyone else. If someone hates the work then I am happy with that as I would rather get a strong reaction than indifference.”
Nothing To See Here has had a very positive reaction. For John the biggest reward has come from other photographers that he deeply admires. He says “I have been blown away with it being endorsed by Boogie, Miron Zownir, Scot Sothern as well as fellow British photographers like Peter Dench, Ricky Adam, Derek Ridgers and Jim Mortram. All of these are known for strong social documentary work. When you get recognised by some of the bravest photographers on the planet then that tells me that I am going in the right direction. I also got positive reviews from as far as Turkey and Thailand. I am a great believer in never stopping learning and I want to keep pushing myself to do raise my game.” So what about the people in the book. What did they think of it? John replies that ”everyone who has seen it has really liked it and were happy to be in it. I knew it would be a book before the project finished so I was telling people I was taking these photos for a book and not one person objected to that. They trusted me that I wasn’t looking down on them or ridiculing them and what they were doing. Even though I have sold out of all my copies, every week I am asked for a copy by people living on the street. I also still have friendly relationships with many I have photographed and still follow their lives closely and how they are getting on. Since the book was published five months ago though, 4 people in it have already died. In some ways, they are immortalised and live on in my book. They did exist and I was proud to know them and have fond memories of the moments that we shared.”
John continues to shoot in his city. “I try and photograph every day and am always working on a main project and a couple that that exist in between. I published a book called Shabash about the lowest level cricket league in Bradford that was well-received nationally and has led to me being commissioned by the English Cricket Board for some work. A season spent photographing the grass roots football in Bradford will be my next book Field Of Broken Dreams which is currently being edited. I also have an ongoing project based inside the Shia Muslim community in Bradford. My current long-term project is a detailed investigation into the grime music scene in the north of England which is currently titled Generation Grime. This has also been challenging but it is coming together slowly and surely into coherent work. All of my projects are gritty in feeling and while obviously some are more hardcore than others I would like them all to be taken as a whole to be recognised as a record into the real life of the city of Bradford. Much of this work is based within communities and subcultures that are off the mainstream radar.” He states that “it is really difficult to be recognised as a photographer and work on very limited resources but I just keep pushing on. First and foremost I shoot for me but hopefully I can get more people interested in my work.” John’s work can been seen at his website www.johnbolloten.co.uk and Nothing To See Here may still be available from www.fistfulofbooks.com
SHELTER photo essay by: Aleksandra Leković
Photographs were taken during 2014-2015 in an asylum in Belgrade, Serbia. Residents belong to different age groups, corporal and mental competence. Common to all is that they were brought to the borders of existence, some of them are on the boundary between life and death. Many, mainly older ones, belong to the " medium class " who during the wars of " nineties " of the last century became jobless, dispossessed, and wait to be transferred-admitted to an old people s home. Younger ones were usually rejected by their family, have none, or are mentally unstable. They have all made their own rules, system of values,and hierarchy. Talking to them, I reached to their farthest point - boundary that separates them from the rest of the world. Inward facing their life has stopped, reduced to counting hours between meals, coffee, arguments, waiting to be transferred to an old people s home, or simply surrendering themselves and waiting... redemtion.
Aleksandra Leković was born in Kosovska Mitrovica, Serbia in 1971. Activly is engaged in photography since 2oo9. She works and lives in Belgrade, Serbia. Aleksandra holds a Master degree of Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade. She is award winning photographer and she exibited in Serbia and Europe. Memember of ULUPUDS, The Applied Artist And Designers Association of Serbia
A day AT the beach
baiting life… photo essay by: Joydeep Mukherjee
As I was roaming about the beach of Orissa in India, I tried to capture the daily life of the fishermen and their struggle. I spent the whole day to capture the tiny moments of their lives as they mend their nets, sell their catches and engage in other activities. Every day they ride to the sea in search of fortune. Sometimes they come back with huge catch; sometimes they return empty handed. Amongst all these activities, I saw them living and enjoying each moment as they prepare for a new ride to the sea‌
Joydeep Mukherjee is a photographer from India, who believes that an artist's work must be good consistently to be considered as an art. “One must have ‘eyes like a shutter and mind like a lens’!!.... I always ‘work for a cause, not applause… I live life to express, not impress’!!”, he said. From his early days, hes been interested in various kinds of sports, trekking and travelling but it was only in 2003 that he stepped into the world of photography. During a trek to the Annapurna Base Camp – Nepal he got interested in photography. From this time forth this passion became an integral part of his life.
COLLECTING
SOULS photo essay by: Elisa Tomaselli
Elisa Tomaselli, award winning street photographer from Italy, shows her great series “Collecting souls”. “I started shooting in the street by sheer chance but it was my way to know photography. Now I’m particularly involved in street photography. It is quite challenging, it takes a lot of luck because you never know what you will find on any given day or if you will find anything at all. Sometimes it is a serendipity. Shooting people gives me the possibility to know the world around me, it lets me feel more into life. By taking photos with my camera I can get new meanings from the ordinary world, realizing iconic images which are able to communicate without language boundaries”, she said.
SINCERITY photo essay by: Nemanja Đorđević
Theres something outrageous in Dave Eugene Edwards, leadar of the great Wovenhand and former Sixteen horsepower band from the ninetees. One of the leading serbian rock photographers Nemanja Đorđević, editor of music website Balkanrock, has been inspired by David Eugene Edwards, and his series “Sincerity” he made during several Wovenhand tours held in past eight years, when they visited the Balkans in several ocassions. Nemanja Đorđević was born in 1985. in Vranje, Serbia. He is one of the most representative rock photographers in Serbia, award winning with larg amount of exhibitions behind. He is official photographer for various music festivals and concerts. He lives and work in Belgrade.
nudity and fetishism photo essay by: The London Vagabound
The London Vagabond is a self taught analogue photographer with no formal education. His work often submits to voyeuristic tendencies and a desire to document the everyday to the obscure. His interest in photography stems from being a prolific graffiti vandal, during this time he began to keep a visual diary of his travels and the characters he encountered along the way. More recently his public work has been focused on nudity and fetishisms although he continues to shoot the overlooked, the avoided, the lurkers and the people that society purposefully likes to ignore. The London Vagabond’s background has created a non-conformist and unorthodox approach to his work which manifests through the images he produces. In his own words he is ‘consistently inconsistent’. There is no story, I have no interest in using long words or overcomplicated descriptions to justify my images. They just are! It’s all fun and games but some day someone could loose an eye…criticise, be disgusted, it might get you off, it might make you feel sick, or you might not give a shit. This selection of work is a snapshot of the last year, it is a representation of my life and the people in it. Nothing more, nothing less.
E
RELEASES Igor Čoko: TRAPPED – Hell is round the corner Format 25x20 cm, 108 pages, 50 photographs Language: English Publisher: GRAIN photo E books, 2017.
UPCOMING
https://issuu.com/grainphotobooks
Narnya Imbrin: Little Black Book
FLORIAN BACHMAIER: ABHAZIA
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