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Interview with Nemanja Podraščić - The Art of Street Photography as a Reflection of Serbia
Culture is art—art is culture, and everything is intertwined with the daily lives of people who create the culture and, from it, the art. Every continent has its own unique art or artistic signature, but if we look deeper, we can notice subtle differences from country to country. One person who can perhaps best bring Serbian culture closer to you is street photographer Nemanja Podraščić, whose art inspires other artists while simultaneously documenting the daily life of people in this region, capturing the culture that currently exists.
Below is an interview with him, which will surely be interesting from the perspective of how he views our culture and what he finds most intriguing to capture through his lens:
Let’s introduce our community members to Nemanja Podraščić.
I am a visual anthropologist from Belgrade, whose main forms of communication are photography and short documentary films. I film and photograph people in all sorts of possible and impossible situations, aiming to capture everyday life and culture with my camera.
What is street photography?
It’s capturing with a camera moments that are familiar to all of us, in which we all participate, but not everyone has the ability or desire to document them.
How did you start photographing life in Serbia?
It happened spontaneously. I live on the outskirts of the city and spent a lot of time in public transportation, and such an atmosphere captures everyday life quite well, which is one of my main themes, and at the same time, it’s photogenic. I became familiar with documentary or, better said, life photography during high school when I saw the works of Belgrade Raw, Boogie, and Dragoljub Zamurović, which made me realize that photography can capture even the most ordinary moments experienced by people around us, without necessarily being something aestheticized or beautified.
How much time do you spend on the streets while photographing?
Since I use a phone for video, I can record something whenever I’m on the street. Wherever you are, there’s a chance to capture a shot, so it’s important to always be ready for that. However, not every place is suitable for photography, and with a phone, you are less noticeable. A camera is much more conspicuous, and when I’m alone with it, I get different photos compared to videos from my phone, and with it, I go to specific places. That’s about 3-4 hours a week (which is essentially little; it should be that much daily).
Do you think there’s a difference between your photos and those from people in other countries?
The laws regarding street photography differ; in some places, it’s even prohibited without the permission of the person being photographed. When that’s not a limiting factor, the photos don’t differ much—the genre is fundamentally the same. All major cities have similar infrastructure and demographics, so the themes in the photos overlap. In Switzerland, where I participated in an exhibition this year, street photography almost doesn’t exist because people are cautious and notice the camera; you need their permission to photograph them.
What do you think is the most authentic thing in our culture that you’ve seen so far?
It’s hard to say there’s something so authentic that others don’t have, but I think the countries of the former Yugoslavia, especially those that aren’t EU members, are characterized by an overall "chaos" that reigns on the streets in terms of diversity. Or at least that’s how I see it. There’s a certain rawness of everyday life and a culture of "surviving from day to day," by which I mean people’s idleness, which creates constant tension and uncertainty in all aspects on the streets, making it unique, especially when accompanied by the corresponding colorful urban environment, traffic, and architecture characteristic of this part of the world. If we look beyond Belgrade, there are many themes for photography, from the various cultures that have shared the same space for centuries, like in Vojvodina, to nearly abandoned villages in the south of the country, which have preserved houses and landscapes that will never again be built or look the same.
Why is this kind of art important?
I believe that photography can provide a different insight into reality and raise some global questions, just as film, music, or any other form of art can. You can’t remain indifferent when you see, for example, the photographs of Goran Tomašević. My kind of photography isn’t like that; it doesn’t aim to send a "sobering" or "different" message. It’s more of a "poetic" expression, showing my perspective of reality, not reality itself.
Where have you exhibited so far?
I had a group exhibition in Switzerland this year. The theme was Belgrade, and I exhibited with three other Serbian photographers. I haven’t exhibited in Serbia yet.
What should young people visiting Serbia pay attention to while walking the streets to get to know our culture?
They should use public transportation. There, they’ll see a person carrying a water heater, another eating a watermelon, a third one who has to smoke a cigarette right there, and a fourth playing the accordion. They should read the inscriptions on buildings, and I might add, on gravestones. All of this is part of everyday life and the art of a culture we want to get to know.
Link to Nemanja’s Instagram profile here.
Interview with Nemanja Podraščić - The Art of Street Photography as a Reflection of Serbia
Culture is art—art is culture, and everything is intertwined with the daily lives of people who create the culture and, from it, the art. Every continent has its own unique art or artistic signature, but if we look deeper, we can notice subtle differences from country to country. One person who can perhaps best bring Serbian culture closer to you is street photographer Nemanja Podraščić, whose art inspires other artists while simultaneously documenting the daily life of people in this region, capturing the culture that currently exists.
Below is an interview with him, which will surely be interesting from the perspective of how he views our culture and what he finds most intriguing to capture through his lens:
Let’s introduce our community members to Nemanja Podraščić.
I am a visual anthropologist from Belgrade, whose main forms of communication are photography and short documentary films. I film and photograph people in all sorts of possible and impossible situations, aiming to capture everyday life and culture with my camera.
What is street photography?
It’s capturing with a camera moments that are familiar to all of us, in which we all participate, but not everyone has the ability or desire to document them.
How did you start photographing life in Serbia?
It happened spontaneously. I live on the outskirts of the city and spent a lot of time in public transportation, and such an atmosphere captures everyday life quite well, which is one of my main themes, and at the same time, it’s photogenic. I became familiar with documentary or, better said, life photography during high school when I saw the works of Belgrade Raw, Boogie, and Dragoljub Zamurović, which made me realize that photography can capture even the most ordinary moments experienced by people around us, without necessarily being something aestheticized or beautified.
How much time do you spend on the streets while photographing?
Since I use a phone for video, I can record something whenever I’m on the street. Wherever you are, there’s a chance to capture a shot, so it’s important to always be ready for that. However, not every place is suitable for photography, and with a phone, you are less noticeable. A camera is much more conspicuous, and when I’m alone with it, I get different photos compared to videos from my phone, and with it, I go to specific places. That’s about 3-4 hours a week (which is essentially little; it should be that much daily).
Do you think there’s a difference between your photos and those from people in other countries?
The laws regarding street photography differ; in some places, it’s even prohibited without the permission of the person being photographed. When that’s not a limiting factor, the photos don’t differ much—the genre is fundamentally the same. All major cities have similar infrastructure and demographics, so the themes in the photos overlap. In Switzerland, where I participated in an exhibition this year, street photography almost doesn’t exist because people are cautious and notice the camera; you need their permission to photograph them.
What do you think is the most authentic thing in our culture that you’ve seen so far?
It’s hard to say there’s something so authentic that others don’t have, but I think the countries of the former Yugoslavia, especially those that aren’t EU members, are characterized by an overall "chaos" that reigns on the streets in terms of diversity. Or at least that’s how I see it. There’s a certain rawness of everyday life and a culture of "surviving from day to day," by which I mean people’s idleness, which creates constant tension and uncertainty in all aspects on the streets, making it unique, especially when accompanied by the corresponding colorful urban environment, traffic, and architecture characteristic of this part of the world. If we look beyond Belgrade, there are many themes for photography, from the various cultures that have shared the same space for centuries, like in Vojvodina, to nearly abandoned villages in the south of the country, which have preserved houses and landscapes that will never again be built or look the same.
Why is this kind of art important?
I believe that photography can provide a different insight into reality and raise some global questions, just as film, music, or any other form of art can. You can’t remain indifferent when you see, for example, the photographs of Goran Tomašević. My kind of photography isn’t like that; it doesn’t aim to send a "sobering" or "different" message. It’s more of a "poetic" expression, showing my perspective of reality, not reality itself.
Where have you exhibited so far?
I had a group exhibition in Switzerland this year. The theme was Belgrade, and I exhibited with three other Serbian photographers. I haven’t exhibited in Serbia yet.
What should young people visiting Serbia pay attention to while walking the streets to get to know our culture?
They should use public transportation. There, they’ll see a person carrying a water heater, another eating a watermelon, a third one who has to smoke a cigarette right there, and a fourth playing the accordion. They should read the inscriptions on buildings, and I might add, on gravestones. All of this is part of everyday life and the art of a culture we want to get to know.
Link to Nemanja’s Instagram profile here.