by: SANDRA KRIŽIĆ ROBAN

History of contemporary photography in Croatia is a continuous sequence of individual events – of short term publishing projects, events sponsored by galleries such as CEFFT¹ or Arhiv Tošo Dabac, as an example of places where „parallel“ exhibitions were held. From the exhibition Croatian photography from 1950 until today²; and until now, the relationship towards photography has not significantly changed; events are scarce, and the most significant photography collections from Croatia are still stored at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Arts and Crafts, and the Zagreb Photo Club.

Liz Wells’ approach, which says that history, as a project, is not neutral, and therefore speculation on photography and photographic practice needs to be re-examined,³ is still current, especially considering various social and political circumstances characteristic for certain periods, and which all affect interpretation of the position and critical reconstruction of the photographic medium. Besides, we are surrounded by images. And words which explain those images, which place them in certain contexts, more or less plausible. The communication, once basically direct, now comes in layers, and it appears that today there is not many things we can see-view-comprehend, without a mediator. The question is whether we can perceive all of the nuances which they mediate.

Personal interest and individual approach

An overview of contemporary events which commenced after then end of World War II is defined by ground breaking changes – the dominant continuity of traditionalism gives place to an avant-garde, innovative artistic approaches. This particularly applies to activities of the EXAT 51 group, which also ranked photographers among its members. It's also important to recall that this was the time when artists would often search for great ideas, and represent people from various sides of the world. There is a respect towards heritage, and artists explore that which is different, unusual, the everyday, which they strive to enjoy after all the destruction and suffering the world had faced. It is a time when artists question their personal beliefs by showing the world through the eyes of an individual – which can be recognized by the work of photographers who are interested in possibilities of form and expression of the photographic medium.

During the 1950s, emphasis was put on the individual artistic – photographic – creation, which is moving away from the previous frequent emphasis on objective reflection of reality in the portrayal of subjects. Caught between abstraction and reality, photographers are interested in the ‘painter’s approach to meaning’, in the context of subjective photography (Milan Pavić, Zlatko Zrnec, certain works by Tošo Dabac), in which we can perceive the transformation of photography into an artistic medium which encourages the individual and personal, rather than collective (or real) event. This blazes the trail for development of contemporary photography in Croatia, whose artists first question their own artistic-photographic consciousness, by taking interest in structures, alienation, and the question/purpose of human and technological existence.

There is a direct connection between the interest for structures photographed by artists in the 1950s and early 60s', and the compromised existential context as consequence of war. To penetrate the core, to see what is usually not available to the human eye, and to notice natural structures  which witness layers of time and experience are in the focus of early post-bellum photographers, who did not conform to narration or the documentary approach to reality. The world had to be introduced to what exists beneath the surface.

Following these experiences in the 1970s is the work of Željko Jerman (1949–2006), whose performative techniques – inspired also by artists' existential doubts – are used to question the photographic medium, to challenge its technical properties and possibilities to the very edge of its capacity. The artist produces his extremely gestural messages by obstructing photographic techniques, often optioning not to use the photo camera in order to both literally and metaphorically imprint his marks on the paper, peeling away and damaging its layers. The artists' life and body were his permanent tool and subject of interest. Although it seemed that there was no way out from the situation where he pushed the capacity of the photographic medium to its limit, Jerman never fully relinquished the simple procedure of shooting his diary, an activity which he performed every day during 1977 and 1998. The subjectivity of his approach and the elementary sources used, are the basis of his artistic concept of recording one's own existence in space and time, and the belief in the equivalence of both existential and artistic reality.

Photographing the everyday

Mladen Tudor emerged on the photography scene in the 1960s, as Croatian only Bresson follower, and “the last child of journalism” as nicknamed by critic Veselko Tenžera in his time. His seemingly simple and balanced photography of un-emphasized contrasts shows that it is possible to combine that which cannot be combined, in a visually ingenious way, to communicate on an equal level without obstacles of any kind. The documentary form of his scenes is devoid of sensationalism or similar journalistic characteristics. Tudor's interest for man results in equal treatment of all components of the frame (ambient and subject), without subsequent manipulation and retouching.

Reflections of life photography can also be found in the generation of artists which made their mark in the so called „Polet’s photography”.⁴ In the relatively short period of activity (1978–1981),⁵ these artists fundamentally changed the relationship of the printed medium and society towards the photograph, as well as photography's role in contemporary urban context. In that time of great format, Polet’s photography directly and critically viewed and commented on social, political and cultural relationships.

The photographer’s attitudes and beliefs start to become dominant; we are no longer talking about illustrating someone's thesis, but about independent critical material, in which the public image was not represented in the way that was imagined and placed in public by the society of the time.

From Gorgona to PM

Activities of the Gorgona group introduce the concept of photography as an element in the complex process of experimentation, exploration and documentation of artistic concepts, strategies and language. Gorgona also published its own magazine, designed as an art work (11 issues were published from 1961 to 1966). In the first issue, Josip Vaništa published a photography of an empty store window, with narrow rake shaped shelves. The motif was repeated on all nine pages of the magazine.⁶ The motif is completely cold, non-picturesque, it bears witness to the futility of ironic denial of the world in which group members used comments exchanged with a small number of like minded supporters, to offer criticism on circumstances in which they lived and functioned.

After the Gorgona group, the 1970s are marked by „re-examination of photography as source for the photographic medium".⁷ Photography magazine SPOT⁸ emerged in the time of significant changes in art, especially pertaining to its function, when areas of interest and forms of manifestation and mediation of artistic content are widening, influenced by the political and social circumstances of the late 1960s. Encouragement to publish the only specialized magazine for photography in Croatia, in the second half of the 20^th century, was expressed through the need to promote general and specific culture of visual communication, where photography was interpreted as a special form of expression, documentation and narration through images.⁹

It is possible to discuss movements in photography from mid 1960s onward in the context of New artistic practice – the time which marks the appearance and articulation of the phenomenon related to artistic activity conditioned by socio-political and culturological changes which emerged as consequence of the student riots.

This period was marked by interest in the concept of the society, which is no longer seen as a passive observer of artistic activities, but rather as a force which influences artistic activities and actively participates in them. There are several noteworthy artists from that generation, who would gather in alternative, informal spaces (Podroom, 1975.); places of special interest were the Galerija Studentski centar (Student Center Gallery), Galerija Nova (Gallery Nova), and Galerija Proširenih medija (Extended Media Gallery), which was designed as an experimental field for artistic activities, a place to question the position of art and the possibility of its effect on society.

Many photographers and artist who worked with the photographic medium started to question the meaning, purpose and position of an artist in society. Art became an open field where the phenomena of culture, society, politics and economy are explored in new, emerging media: photography, film, video, performance, action, installation, intervention.

Several generations of authors developed in this setting, artists with strikingly conceptual ideas, who often don't place significance on craft skills and formal techniques of photography. In order to try to determine the meaning behind their motives, we can point out artists of the middle and older generation who influenced communicating phenomena of contemporary photography on a conceptual level.

Individual artistic positions

Conceptual artistic strategies condition the process of changing the meaning and understanding of photography, its identity is justified by an idea, procedure, destruction or deliberately exposing the material to light.

Petar Dabac, who ran The Tošo Dabac Atelier (1980–1987), and used it to organize several exhibitions featuring works by domestic and foreign photographers, created a series of photograms in the mid 1970s, which were heavily influenced by New Tendencies.¹⁰ The author's process of perception depended on controlling the in-flow of light, which created constructions of defined rhythm. Although the photograms can be seen as amongst other things, ornamental structures, it was Dabac's intention to explore the possibilities of technological processes conditioned by allowing the light flow through the paper. The artist focused on the „non-observer’s“ approach to photography, which is dependant on inner laws, and not on exterior circumstances. This is the time when he creates copies of photographs, with color interventions. The experience of a „non-observer’s“ photography is explained by a desire to have an invisible camera as a possible tool to document excerpts of reality, which is in the end stripped of its identity, creating almost abstract, „athematic“ images.

Photography becomes language; for instance in the works of Mladen Stilinović, it is everything which enters the spectator’s field of vision, and for that purpose, the artist cuts out a rectangular hole in the middle of the photo sensitive paper. Through the years, Stilinović has developed a personal strategy of social documentarism,¹¹ used to define his artistic position in society, as well as the general position of an individual. Antun Maračić is interested in special analysis of the photographic procedure and process. Documenting the actions as part of the creative process of noticing, and introducing details taken from their native context to the photographic medium, he introduces them to art space. He has retained this strategy until today, creating art cycles, where he places his personal existential frame in connection with space and time, reflecting on both their permanent and changing characteristics.

Davor Matičević 25 years ago, was correct to notice that photography of Ivan Posavec cannot be placed in any artistic movement, and despite the predilection for conceptual strategies, the artist was most remembered for photography of the Polet circle, and for a series of portraits which he's been creating for a number of years, and which receive a lot media attention. His ability to underemphasize, as critic Radoslav Putar once put, „the particularities of perception“, can perhaps be placed in the vein of content-less scenes of the Gorgona group, the meaning of which we try to explain by interest in the absurd, the paradoxical, the ludic, behind which there is always significant critical questioning of reality.

Boris Cvjetanović formed as an artist in the circle of the PM group (authors close to Extended Media Gallery). The seemingly abandoned places and scenes without meaning which he photographed for years point to consequences caused by different contexts, with the joint component being often the absurd. His work possesses the expressive atmosphere which seemingly appears nostalgic; however, what is more important is artists' sensitivity to problems of the social, urban and general context. The seemingly marginal subjects – whether representing urban spaces, intimate places of temporary habitation or portraits of the forgotten, disempowered individuals, witness the importance of social and political iconography in our environment.

Cvjetanović „takes away“ traditional meaning to the decisive moment, by conceptually challenging one of the basic ideas of photography. His photographs show „visible signs of what once was“; in them we search, and maybe find the confirmation of our own difference – „what we are in the light of what we no longer are".¹²

The visible reality of Jasenko Rasol's photography is in some way an extension of Cvjetanović's experience. Rasol's story is dispersed; he photographs places which are not specifically remarkable in any way, but there are some details which break away from the rules (sometimes it happens that the artist himself didn't notice it when he was filming). The photographs appear as if they were made by accident, they communicate seemingly neutral processes which lead to their realization. Direct, spontaneous and unpretentious, Rasol continues the tradition of photography whose basic purpose is to show existence in a certain space and time; to understand, because he is present.

¹ Center for Photography and Film at the MSU – Museum of Contemporary Art (former Gallery of Contemporary Art), Zagreb.

² MSU – Museum of Contemporary Art,  Zagreb, 1993.

³ Liz Wells, "General Introduction", The Photography Reader, Liz Wells (ed.), London, Routledge, 2004., 3–4.

⁴ For more information about Polet magazine, see  http://povijest.net/sadrzaj/hrvatska/sr-hrvatska/749-od-qnovog-valaq-do-nove-drave-4.html (withdrawn 24. 10. 2009.).

⁵ Markita Franulić, "Poletova fotografija – deset godina kasnije" (Polet’s Photography – Ten Years Later), Život umjetnosti, 45–46, Zagreb, 1989., 40–53.

⁶ Branka Stipančić, Josip Vaništa. Vrijeme Gorgone i Postgorgone (The period of Gorgona and Postgorgona), Zagreb, 2007., from p 70.

⁷ Miško Šuvaković, Pojmovnik suvremene umjetnosti (Glossary of  Contemporary Art), Zagreb, Horetzky, 2005., 233.

⁸ Publisher of the Gallery of the City of Zagreb (today Musem of Contemporary Art, Zagreb), 11 issues published from 1972 to 1978., editor-in-chief Radoslav Putar.

⁹ "Photography seen as a medium which helps to determine the general cultural milieu, where artists use the visual to express their thoughts of exploration, was represented in the magazine through a selection of current, progressive and experimental works. The way in which artistic photography communicated with the reader encouraged new possibilities of using and challenging the medium, which was also used to critically examine the environment and circumstances of survival of the artistic context of photography. The international selection of artists of various generations and methods of artistic expression, early interest for theoretical exploration of the multimedia artistic practice, for experiments like generative photography, Xerox,  and other views and directions of „new photography“, supported by associates, resulted in a thoughtful, uncompromising concept of furthering contemporary trends in photography. The culture of using technology which is appropriate for the medium made it possible for the magazine to publish works which at the time contributed to widening the space in which photography was usually considered, and which should especially be taken into consideration due to the fact the photographic „ craft“ associations were not ready to accept artistic experiments, which was preferred by artists who used photography in their work." Sandra Križić Roban, SPOT (part from the unpublished article), 2006.

¹⁰ The goal of artists who belonged to the movement New tendencies was to redefine the view of art in the context of constructive plastic art, to consider the problems of structure, perception, communication, multiplication, analysis of the system, etc. These artists’ special interest in optical effects derived encouragement from scientific research and discoveries which rely on eye sensitivity.

¹¹ Sandra Križić Roban, "Učiniti vidljivim" (Making Visible), catalogue of the exhibition Bleiben oder Gehen/Ostati ili otići/Staying or Leaving, [curators Christine Frisinghelli, Sandra Križić Roban], Umjetnički paviljon, Zagreb, 7. 9.–28. 9. 2004.; Camera Austria/Kunsthaus Graz, Graz, 8. 10.–28. 11. 2004.

¹² Pierre Nora, quoted in: Marc Augé, Nemjesta, Psefizma, Naklada DAGGK, Karlovac, 2001.

© Sandra Križić Roban
October 2009