15. Aug - 3. Sep 2008




Belgrade Cultural Centre
The "Artget" Gallery

We need a certain amount of time in order to observe the photos before us very carefully. Or, we are looking at photos where time is the key element. Since their magical and seductive beauty lies in simplicity, it is no wonder Alex Novak, Abadzic’s gallerist in the States, has written: (…) “Abadzic’s photographs have East-European sentimentality whose sense of magic has also a sense of awe at the same time… “

During his daily walks, Stanko Abadzic discovers Prague, the city where he had his sanctuary and stronghold between 1995 and 2002, slowly and with a palpable desire to immortalise within the aggressive process of globalisation those sites where people have been feeling content and happy for ages. He offers us consistently and without any fear his inner, perhaps intimate, or even his introvert way of looking at the world. He perceives the city behind its facades, ivy-clad gardens, outskirts and cobblestone streets where he finds a different kind of life and some genuine individuals. In the world saturated with images, where millions of pictures, often full of brutality and bloodshed, fight with each other for supremacy in a kaleidoscope of capital, we sense Abadzic’s desire to place his camera focus on peace and tranquillity, i.e. on the aesthetic.

He is not interested in famous tourist sights in this city on the Vltava River or in historic legacy and monuments. He bypasses those extravagant and sensational motifs of the city and moves towards those subtle and veiled details of the sites which are noticed only by those individuals with a soul.

In her article, Katrin Bassen, the editor of photography in the German magazine Fotoforum, states: Stanko Abadzic is one of those photographers with the eye for life meaningful details. He might be compared to those great Frech masters of photography. With his camera, he discovers idyllic moments of everyday life, pleasures and delights of ordinary people, the way Willy Ronis or Robert Doisneau does it. Stanko’s language is precise and well structured. His black and white photos are not average in any way. They emanate nostalgia and strong yearning for the past.

Natasa Segota Lah, the art historian who has written an introductory text for Abadzic’s book, says that Stanko Abadzic opens us numerous doors of perception and gives us a refined interpretation of phenomenal manifestations in his unpretentious and compelling photos.

Precision, sophisticated cuts and frames, perfection in terms of technique, unobtrusive motifs in order to depict moods, and serene sounds of time flow are constants in Abadzic’s photos.

That is why it is no wonder that Abadzic’s photos of Prague have been exhibited so many times, in almost every European country, as well as in Argentina and the States.

Stanko Abadzic (Vukovar, 1952) graduated from the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, the Department of German Studies. He has worked as a correspondent for the Croatian newspaper Vjesnik in Vukovar. He is well known for his reports from Tunisia, Malta, Turkey and other countries. Stanko lived and worked as a freelance photographer in Czech Republic between 1995 and 2002. He has displayed his photos at many group and solo exhibitions there, but his biggest retrospective exhibition has been held in the Gallery of Josef Sudek in Prague. Abadzic’s photos are included in numerous photo collections in Europe and the States. He does book covers for the following publishing houses from Zagreb: Meander, Fraktura, Znanje, AGM and Disput.

He is a member of the Croatian Association of Artists Zagreb and the Croatian Freelance Artists’ Association Zagreb. He is the winner of numerous awards and prizes.

He lives and works in Zagreb, Croatia.

Contact:stankoabadzic@arcor.de

www.abadzic.de.vu

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