Since the destruction of my homeland*, I have found myself living in a globalized pocket
colony, where all big world issues are applied to our lives, without us having any say. As the
world situation is getting darker, I often think of my father, who had to live through six
regimes without moving, except when some young men in uniforms displaced him.
A couple of decades later, some other young men came. We have watched many different
uniforms forcing people away from their homes since then.
Made weary by the flood of photographs showing crises and routine atrocities, that has
changed nothing, but ultimately only enhanced our insensitivity as a form of a self-defense,
I had to rethink whether documentary photography still possesses any relevance in our
post-factual world. How can photographs visualize our “contemporary” moment and not mere
manifeatations of it? How can photographs visualize the abstract notion that makes hostages
of us all?
The Darkening series asks us to take a different perspective when addressing those
questions.
Since all the reasoning that we witness today seems incapable of producing any
solutions, these photographs are visualizations of my contemplation on our contemporary moment.
The photographic materialization of what is primarily a mental object. In the process of their
making, I was searching for an understanding beyond daily narratives and excuses.
The series comprises two diptychs and one pentaptych. It begins with images
that possess a vague visual text, and intentionally progresses to those completely void of
information. From situations that contain life – towards its gradual fading.
The Darkening series is an concluding part of a deeper inward journey that is expressed in
the body of work entitled Scotoma.
DK: 2019
*the former Yugoslavia