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The black and white landscape view of Sarajevo Cemetery through Ripped Fence with Storm Clouds along with the documentary Portrait of Hajra managed to escape the fate of a stolen collection of works made from 2002 to 2005 and are among a small handful of survivors meagerly representative of my first year spent in exile in the suburbs of the Bosnian capitol of Sarajevo from 2003 to 2004.
Sarajevo's landscape is punctuated by cemeteries on all sides, the by-product of the war here still not too long ago. Large fields of them take up whole hill sides and clusters of gravestones even reside in the middle of the public parks where citizens fell from sniper fire during the long siege (1992-1995) of the city.
This particular image is a view onto our neighborhood cemetery which is mammoth and possibly the largest in the country and where I spent much of my time with my girlfriend sitting atop a hill inside watching sunsets or more usually clouds descending upon the sea of stories, slightly troubled by the breathtaking view brought about by such unfathomable darker times. While I was making this picture I remember a local elderly man watching with interest. I was concerned that he might see such a blatantly touristical act as calloused until he nodded and gave me a knowing smile of approval. Doesn't grandeur always come at the highest price? Still it is grand.
For a much more recent series of experimental photography works in a revisited Sarajevo, please see the collection called Sarajevo Blurred Photography Series.
- Jesse Ross
All Images © 2001-2008
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