MARIOTOPIC

"So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked."

Mark Twain

“In West African traditions, land belongs to the person who works it. Produce belongs to the person who grows it. Whatever is created belongs to the creators—not to the God that created them, and certainly not to the colonist or slavemaster.”

― Israel Morrow, Gods of the Flesh: A Skeptic's Journey Through Sex, Politics and Religion

Images are from the following countries: Morocco, Western Sahara (Polisario), Mauretania, Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone.

”No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.”

Edmund Hillary

Series portrays life of the segrageted native Arabic people, living under occupaton and politycal / phisycal opression in West Bank - Palestine.  

- 1st place, international competition , 2014. Rovinj PhotoDays

Miners dig sulphur by hand in a crater of an active volcano. After digging surrounded by sulphuric fumes they clime the arduous three hour path, sulphur on their backs. Life expectancy of a miner is 40 years here. Sulphur from Ijen crater is widely used in production of batteries, plastic etc.

Location: Avtive volcano Kawah Ijen, east Jawa, Indonesia.

Production of steel in industrial city of Sisak, central Croatia, begun shortly after the  World War II. Iron-melting oven, heart of the plant, came to Yugoslavia as a part of the war reparation of Mussolini's Italy. After working nonstop for more than 50 years,  oven will soon be decommissioned, as plant is being bought by a US company, and sevear modernisation is due. As untill this date, a lot of work is done by hand, with new equipment  there will be no need for the majority of manual workers, skilled to endure some of the toughest work conditions in Europe.  

- Kodak Kodachrome, 135.

The Kosovo Raillway, based on remains of ones buissy  track system of Yugoslavia, exists artificially under patronage of Kosovo governement as a symbol of stateshood. There are only two lines in Kosovo, served by two traines a day, riding almost empty thrue country's landscape, reminding us of bitter taste of victory. Train is Important in minds of Serbians from the region as in the days of war it was  a lifeline between Kosovo and Serbia, providing only safe rute of travel into Kosovo war zone.

Hrelic is a flea market at the outskirts of Zagreb. With micro economy of its own, it feeds and clothes substantial amount of people, both buyers dependent of cheep used products and resellers whose often only job is to collect and trade what most of society would frown upon and discard as garbage. Here other people's waste becomes somebody's birthday present, clothes for winter, even food... Market is filled with pensioners, Roma and unemployed. As economic crisis deepens, people that still manage their lives on "expected" level, together with government in denial deny unsustainability of Croatian economic policy since early 90's. While capital shakes under daily protests, these people silently,  survive from day to day.

-  Fuji Neopan 120.

Most of the region is governed by the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic - unrecognized, de facto independent state established on the basis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast within  Azerbaijan SSR of the Soviet Union. The territory is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, although it has not exercised power over most of the region since the war in 1991.

"Same sex" is a work in progress that strives to give insight into something utterly familiar - daily routine of two people in love. Only twist, for most of us, is a fact that subjects are of same sex. Not being previously exposed to the private life of homosexuals, my interest is to portray their days together with as little interfering as possible, exposing the privacy of their own home.  
  - Fuji 120 Pro Z color neg.
  - 1st place, international competition , 2012. Rovinj PhotoDays

Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market, commonly known as the Tsukiji Market, is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world and is one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind. The market is located in Tsukiji - central Tokyo.

Island of Bisevo is the least populated island according to latest head count. It has only 7 permanent residents. During summer island is full of life, but winter makes this old Yugoslavian naval base very harsh for its 7 residents. It takes 2 days to reach the island by public transport. Also Bisevo has a history of very closed politics as it was a restricted military zone for over 50 years.

-Fuji Provia 120 Color negative film

 Tokyo Metro is the most used subway system in the world based on annual passenger rides. - Millions use the system on a daily basis. Since Tokyoites spend so much time in the tube just waiting, I  used it as a platform for showing psycho-sociological situation in Japanese society generally.  Japan being most advanced and futuristic country followed by the rest of us, shows where  world is heading in the near future, as far as western civilisation is considered.

 The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of tracks connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world. There are branch lines to China through Mongolia and Manchuria. Today, the railway is part of the Eurasian Land Bridge. I took a trip throgh Russia, Mongolia and china. 3 so diferent countries, combined by a single ralway track, cutting through continents, showing both diversity and similarity.

Series portrays motifs of Eastern Europe, colagued in a dark room from film negatives to a liquid emulsion.

Yazidi (ئزد or Êzidî) are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots. They are primarily  Kurdish-speaking inhabitants of the Mosul region in northern Iraq. Their religion - Yazidism, is a branch of Yazdânism, and is seen as a highly syncretic complex of local Kurdish beliefs and Islamic Sufi doctrine.  Yazidi see God as a creator of the world, which he placed under the care of seven holy beings (or angels), whose chief is Melek Taus, the Peacock Angel, known in Cristianity as Satan. The series depicts the center of Yazisism around the world, located in Qurdistan region of Iraq.  Since Melek lives under the ground, toilets, shoes or spitting are forbiden in the village under the penalty of death. 

Kazakh and Kyrgiz lives  -the in-betweens.