"A More Positive View"

Balkanium: The Balkans Journal of Photography

All of the images in Balkanium are better than this! Photo discredit: Jerry Kisslinger

Meet Balkanium, a feast for the eyes and salve for the soul!

Documentary photographer Anđela Petrovski created this surprising and tender online gallery in 2021 for her master’s project at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. She credits as mentor her professor Aleksander Kelić.¹

Her goals for the project go beyond art, as she explains on the site :

“It was conceived as a magazine for photojournalists from all countries of the Balkans to share the stories and examples from their countries, thus introducing people to, or reminding people of their country, surprising us or teaching us something new, or realizing our similarities.”

It succeeds. The fifty stories hosted (so far) offer a startling variety of subjects and styles. Photographers from countries across the region zoom in on the particulars, taking us from harvesting in Baranja to casket crafting in Paračin, the celebrated Mijak wedding rituals in Galičnik to a rarely seen Pomak wedding in the Rhodopes, a Romanian psychiatric hospital in a castle to Dionysian Christmas rituals in northern Greece.

The site is also a portal leading into photography networks aiming at social change. Reading Petrovski’s interview with Skopje-raised Bertran Selim, I learned about the VID Foundation that Selim founded in the Netherlands in 2020 to support visual storytelling that can “expose often unseen, relevant, social issues from the Balkans.” I followed other links to the photo collective Kamerades, whose mission of “documenting reality and spreading awareness about social issues in the Balkans” is currently realized with dozens of Instagram images of recent protests in Serbia. “Photography,” as Petrovski says in one interview, quoting Susan Sontag, “is a weapon.” The battle she wages is for a more humanized worldview.

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It’s better to spend your time looking there than reading here. Still, to entice you, here’s a sampler of four stories, without images, to respect the artists’ rights, but with abundant links from the titles and photographers’ names.

The Light Through My Grandpa’s Camera / Svetlost Kroz Dedin Fotoaparat

Photos and text by Arin Agich

For these shots of Ohrid and Struga, Agich chose the Yashica-J camera that his grandfather had used for 50 years. He explains the result:

“The light through the lens is not just sunlight; it’s the guidance of past generations, showing us how to see the world and keep our memories alive.

Though the world around Lake Ohrid changes, the light remains – reminding me of the summers I spent by its shores.”

Indian Summer / Miholjsko leto

Photos by Stevan Pavić, text by Anđela Petrovski

“Indian summer symbolizes transience and serves as a reminder that beautiful moments come and go. That is why it should be cherished when it happens. It often brings a sense of surprise – warmth that appears when we least expect it and when we think it’s time for coats and scarves. It’s also a reminder that life is made up of cycles, of occasional returns to experiences we have known before, but in a new light beautifully. In his hometown of Dimitrovgrad, renowned Serbian documentary photographer Stefan Pavić captured moments of this Indian summer, its warmth, scents, and memories....”

Abandoned Prespa - Ljubojno / Napuštena Prespa / Ljubojno

Photos and text by Kristijan Evgo

“I've been documenting the changes in my grandma's village in Prespa and the effects of globalization and climate change on the lake and the villages. The name of this village is Ljubojno. Once a striving settlement of more than 2000 inhabitants and today less than 200.” 

Harapides of Pagoneri / Harapidi iz Pagonerija

Photo and text by Manolis Soulos

“Every year in Northern Greece, traditional Dionysian events take place over Christmas, from the 23rd of December to the 8th of January. Spanning back centuries, these activities, customs, and ceremonies have their roots firmly fixed in the traditions of this region and comprise key elements of the local culture….Pagoneri (formerly known as Cheresovo) is a mountain village in the municipality of Kato Nevrokopi of the Regional Unit of Drama in Northern Greece.”

Sometimes the images are more beautiful than the realities of what they capture. But Petrovksi is providing a platform for photographers who speak to the realities in hopeful ways, showing, she says on the site, that there are “good people everywhere” and that

“every change in difficult circumstances starts from the individual. Under difficult circumstances I here refer to the social circumstances of most people from the Balkans, all having more or less similar issues: unemployment, bitterness, poor conditions, but who are also prejudiced, closed off and disconnected.”

To interested photographers, she offers the hope that

“The stories about different people and their traditions, culture and life that highlight interesting differences and similarities, will create a virtual bond here and [a] platform where you can get to know each other and together create a more positive view of the Balkans and its spirit.”

As people in the Balkans, and here in the US, take to the streets to fight the corruption, division-mongering, and reckless cruelty of those with power, I draw hope from that “more positive view.”

1. Brass band fans reading here might enjoy his picture of a young trubač and a glimpse of Život je truba (Life is a Trumpet), his 2010 exhibition about the Guča festival.