Almedin Handanovic, better known under the pseudonym Gorstak, died at age 38. Many thanks to his photographs fell in love with the capital of BiH, and social networks are filled with emotional messages from his followers, who were deeply disturbed and sad.
Almedin Handanovic Gorstak, a professional photographer, was born in Sanski Most and spent most of his life in the native Hrustovo; a village located below the Mountain Mulez in the east and the Mountain Grmec in the west, nearby the river Sana. For himself, he says that he was a child of nature … Moreover, he continues his introduction by saying that his love for photography, which he has brought with him to the capital Sarajevo, started there.
“With the arrival of first cell phones with a camera, my journey began in the world of photography. Of course, I was as an amateur and I photographed just for a hobby at first. I learned about photography by taking photos. After a while, I became aware that I could do better if I had a camera. In a short time, I bought two cameras and then people started to recognize me as a professional photographer,” he told in an interview with Sarajevo Times in December 2017.
While taking photographs in the city I’m trying to be unimpressive and unobtrusive – and by doing this, I am sometimes missing some very interesting stories. But I would often point out a question that many followers ask me on my Instagram profile: “How do you manage to breathe soul into every photo?” My answer is always the same, “photography is art of all the books you’ve read, from fairy tales to novels, to all the movies you’ve watched, from drama to comedy, to music you’ve heard, from ballads to canons, to all the love you have, happy and unhappy.”
