When he arrived at the beginning of the war, Paul Lowe was another stranger in town. Another reporter who planned to tell the world what was happening in Sarajevo and leave. So maybe he’ll come again. But eventually leaves. But Paul stayed. He was there when it was the most difficult, and when many residents left this city, he fell in love with one Sarajevo girl and stayed in Sarajevo.
He understood this city to such an extent that he became part of the identity of Sarajevo and Sarajevo part of his identity.
With his photographs, he showed the world what was happening there, including, as he called it, the “vibrant and cultural life” that took place in the basements during the war years. He considered it a kind of “resistance”.
Lowe, whose photos spread the truth about the events of the siege around the world, died on Saturday in Los Angeles, leaving “his” city in tears.
“True Sarajevo citizen“
Many believe that he left behind an indelible mark, and among them is director Haris Pasovic, who told that he was an “important voice in the world” for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
“Over the years, he has become a bigger Bosnian than me and many of us. Truly Sarajevo citizen. He lived in Vratnik, married the wonderful Sarajevo girl. He helped people, he was a mentor to young artists. A broad-minded man. His contribution to Sarajevo is immeasurable, we will never be able to repay him,” said Pasovic.
“I didn’t know a man who had a gentler nature, and greater warmth when meeting friends who adored him in Sarajevo, London and all over the world. We will remember him for that and for the exhibition “Sarajevo under siege” which is now touring the world”, he added.
The news of Lowe’s death also hit hard BiH director Jasmila Zbanic.
“When some people leave, we feel like we’ve lost a huge piece of our city, our history and ourselves. Briton Paul Lowe was an organic part of the most beautiful and best Sarajevo and BIH. He gifted us great wealth through his works. I thank him for the light he left us through his photographs and his humanity,” she said.
“Our obligation is to continue where he left off”
Damir Sagolj, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for photography, considered Lowe a role model.
”We all grew up under Paul’s coat. Leather, black and elegant, woven from commitment, love and understanding. From professionalism, from gentleness. Of his paintings that defined, like rarely, an entire important era of an important city,” he explained.
“Generations of photographers, and not only photographers, who are interested in the human soul, its darkness and light, have grown up with the images and the life that lives those images, of our fellow citizen Paul. We had the privilege and honor that he embraced us, infinitely selflessly and strongly, when it was most difficult for us.
It is our obligation, human and professional, to continue where he left off. To offer our lens to some new smiling faces who will see the world through it as Paul saw it. And he moved through it so elegantly,” he added.
“A Small Act of Resistance”
A large number of acquaintances and friends are now saying goodbye to Paul on social media, in disbelief that after more than 30 years he is really gone. Forever. That they will no longer meet him at every premiere, every promotion, at every festival in the city whose resistance he admired during the war and which he described in an interview for the Guardian.
Lowe said he arrived in Sarajevo in June 1992. Before that, he documented the end of the Cold War. He was shooting the Romanian revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“When rumors started circulating that something was going to happen in Bosnia, no one could believe it. The country seemed to be integrated: war would mean people literally fighting their neighbors,” he said in an interview in 2022.
“Many of us who covered the siege of Sarajevo initially believed, perhaps naively, that reporting this loud enough, well enough and honestly enough would lead to condemnation and intervention by the international community. There was a sense of disbelief that this could happen in a European capital. I don’t think any of us would have thought that the blockade would still be in place three years later”.
During those years, he visited Sarajevo ten times.
”For the first few weeks, I concentrated on the siege itself: the victims, the patients in the hospital, the bodies in the morgue. Later I became preoccupied with what happens to ordinary, educated, cultured people when they are reduced to medieval conditions caused by siege,” he stated.
He explained that the people of Sarajevo did not have enough weapons to defend themselves and that there was often a shortage of food, water and electricity. However, he pointed out that they were “incredibly adaptable and tried to live as normally as possible”.
”They wouldn’t give up things they wanted to do, like meeting friends downtown. One of my photos, taken a year later, shows a woman’s feet under a sheet in a morgue. Her toenails were painted, which seemed like a small act of resistance.”
His focus was to show the emergence of a “vibrant and important cultural life”, even during the siege.
“Art and culture were considered crucial for the defense of Sarajevo. It was not only about the physical defense of the city but about the very concept of the city – about what it means to be a citizen and part of society”, he stated.
Lowe noted that the Sarajevo citizens would “risk their lives for a little pleasure”, noting that the war was particularly difficult for children who did not want to be stuck indoors.
“During calmer periods, they could go outside more – I took pictures of children swimming in the river during the ceasefire. But the river, like most of the city, was clearly visible to Serbian snipers. “One winter I witnessed a terrible scene: a group of five or six children were killed by a shell while sledding in front of their house,” he said.
“Today I share my life between the United Kingdom (UK) and Sarajevo. My wife is from the city and I have friends here. I recently had an exhibition in the renovated City Hall, the Sarajevo City Hall that was demolished in 1992. One photo shows a string quartet playing in its ruins during the siege. I hung the picture where it was taken, and the building was restored to its former glory,” he said in 2022.
And that’s why, it seems, today Facebook is flooded with messages of gratitude and love for a foreigner who has become one of the greatest Sarajevo citizens, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
