You are a journalist by profession, but today you work as an independent artist and photographer. What motivated you to take this path, to make photography your job?
Money, time and the country in which we live has absolutely no motivating factor for such a decision. In this day, to be an independent artist and photographer, and to then accept that this also is your job, is for me above all a great love towards this call and then it is a struggle for existence. So I can freely say that love for my work is forcing me to continue on this thorny path, and the fact that others are enjoying the results of my effort and work is my ultimate motivating factor.
You were born in Bužim, you live in Tuzla, and you travel throughout B&H. We can safely say that you see B&H quite differently, through the lens. As much as we know about our country, is there anything about B&H that hasn’t been told yet?
My greatest strength in this business is the fact that I have never been tied to one place and because I do not act locally. As you have said, I travel throughout B&H, and also beyond its borders. However, the more we learn and try to find out more about ourselves and our surroundings, in the end we must come to terms with the fact that we know very little compared to what God has given us. I can say with assurance that we know very little about our country, and the story about B&H is impossible to tell, as Dževad Karahasan wisely writes in his novel ‘Sijeme Smrti’: ‘’The spiritual appears to us through symbols, it is revealed, it becomes understandable…We need the benefit and enjoyment, but we also need justice and honesty, love and trust, faith and hope…The skeleton of the world is of the spirit, the form gives him the measurements of that scale where the value of everything that exists and that has happened is measured, and its connective tissue is the extent to which various building blocks of matter are mixed, measured and unmeasured’’. This hope is measurable and immeasurable, familiar and unimagined, the real and the dreamed, that moment in which we try to fathom the mystery of B&H, seems to me the most intriguing moment that keeps taking us back to the circle and does not allow the story of B&H to be told until the end.
How do your photos come about?
First of all, I have to say that my theoretical knowledge about photography is unfortunately very weak. I did not attend a photography school, nor did I take any courses in photography. I am actually self-taught. I prefer to learn the practical rather than the theoretical, although it is impossible to learn one without the other. However, from personal experience, I can conclude that for good and prominent photographs it is very important to have composition, and that includes five elements: select an object (motive), position of the object, accenting, highlighting and subjectification of the object (motive). We are aware that reality is hidden and it needs to be exposed. When I take photographs, I want it to be a disclosure of what is hidden. In this way, photography becomes a matter of framing a portion of someone’s field of vision when that person is standing at the right place at the right time. The secret of my photography lies in the fact that miss to reach and that place and I try at all costs to be at that place at the right time.
Last year you organized a solo exhibition of photographs called ‘Zapis o Zemlji’ (Record of this country), where you presented the beauty of B&H. What kind of photographs were they, and how difficult is it today to organize such an exhibition?
A photo exhibition called ‘Zapis o Zemlji’, where the beauty of B&H was presented are photographs that animated the verses of the poet Mehmedalija Mak Dizdar, verses ‘Bosna’ from Nedžad Ibrišimović and other great poets who left their mark on B&H through their words. Seen from this distance, this exhibition has definitely been a huge turning point in my career, but it is not only that. All of a sudden, all the photographs of B&H that were forgotten in my rich archive got their message and meaning. Searching for the meaning and message of this exhibition will get a completely different dimension in the coming period, and they will be shown to the public in a way that has not been seen so far here. This is a multimedia project that, in addition to viewing photographs, will aim to employ other human senses. Organizing such an exhibition is not difficult when you have good material, as well as competent people as the main resource, who were there to advise me and anything else that was needed. My biggest capital is in human resources and my true friends.
You brought a touch of the primordial of Bosnia to Zagreb, and visitors were amazed with your photographs. How do our neighbors, foreigners see B&H. What do they think of your photographs?
The Bosniak National Community in Zagreb organized the photo exhibition ‘Zapis o Zemlji’ in Zagreb, and thanks to them, their professionalism, and above all their respect towards culture, the echo of this exhibition was so loud that with the help of state media in Croatia, this news was a sensation. Finally, in a sea of bad information and difficult situation our country finds itself in, one positive story about B&H appeared-people have the opportunity to look at photographs that presented an avalanche of feelings and nostalgia because they reflect the beauty of B&H, of all its constituent peoples. This is a timeless story and a story without entity borders. This story reveals the mysticism of the B&H mission, the secrets and untold stories that are present everyday among us, and which are revealed again in my photographs and with clarity are shown in the best artistic variant. To be honest, I did not even dream that our neighbors and critics would react to my work. The positive reactions and attention of the Croatian media were the initial capsule for this information to be a topic for writing and discussion in our country and in our media, for which I thank you for giving me the opportunity for this free advertisement.
What are your plans for the future? Will you show your photographs in other cities in B&H?
When I speak about the plans regarding the photo exhibition ‘Zapis o Zemlji’, we have done something very big and I wish and can hardly wait to share it with the public. I said ‘we’ because I was not alone in this project. I already mentioned the implementation of a huge multimedia project that will offer to visitors other things to see, touch, hear and smell…In a word, to feel B&H! For an intact impression and atmosphere, by friend and project partner, the actor and assistant at ADU in Tuzla Irfan Kasumović will take care of that. He is at the same time the creator of this idea, accomplished guitar player Professor Elvis Sivčević, who is in charge of sound effects, creators of the documentary and film program Muhamed Kahrimanović and Muhamed Berbić, who will give a visual identity to this project. So, already on the basis of cooperation, I can say that the exhibition will be presented again in a new light in our country, region and to our diaspora throughout the world. Until then, the announcement for the multimedia project ‘Putovi-Zapis o Zemlji’ can be seen at: http://youtu.be/aMi4c0IV1k8.