BORUT PETERLIN in a rabbit hole of photography

Miki Muster is one of the most renown comic writers and illustrators in Slovenia and recently his new book came out, that was in spite expectations sold out in few days. For this issue of Mladina Jure Aleksič wrote a portrait of Miki Muster. We agreed to make a portrait on Tuesday although he didn’t had much time and that was clearly expressed at the entrance. My first concept was that I would print out live-sized figures of his character s Zvitorepec, Trdonja and Lakotnik as cowboys then I would put them on the street together with Mr. Muster and put them in a classic Western position. That was ruled out on the first telephone call. So I entered his house with this idea of silhouette on a white board. I took it very fast, then I made a quick portrait behind his desk, illuminating him from balcony through curtains, flashing like Joe McNally It was 23 minutes from the moment I entered and the moment I exit the house. Doesn’t look like, isn’t? That’s what I called efficiency of a photojournalist, ha, ha…

Regular readers of my blog knows that I’m working for last few years on Flower Power project. Short summery; during daily press conferences I document flower bouquets in a way that important famous people are visually degraded to a disturbing background. It’s my personal revenge to public relation personal that treat us, photojournalists as a herd, decreeing us a point of view, handshake and a smile of a politician. What started as a personal frustration, turned out to be a serious art project.

I’ve been invited to participate with Flower Power project on exhibition U3 – Triennial of Contemporary Slovenian Art, curated by Charles Esche in Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana. Texts about the project for the catalog were written by Marcel Štefančič and Grega Repovž. Great honor indeed. Opening of the exhibition is on 8th of June 2010.

My career as an artist is obviously skyrocketing, because just today I’ve received an invitation to participate with Strojan family series on an exhibition in London and also in the beginning of this month there was an opening of a private art collection OKOLJE CONSULTING ART COLLECTION in Gallery of Modern Art in Celje and three pictures of Strojan family are also part of that collection! It’s true what Martin Parr said during our interview; The secret of success is to continue working what you do, so long that people can’t afford to ignore it anymore! Rock and Roll to that!

Oh… about the picture above. I took this grass field picture this morning during a speech of Samuel Žbogar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Slovenia, in Brezovica pri Metliki, Slovenia. Larger Flower Power portfolio you can see HERE.

Here is a metaphor for what Slovenia and Croatia are fighting for – for a bowl of warm water! This issue was used and abused by political parties on both sides for last 19 years. However Žbogar and Jandroković are good guys. Hopefully this issue will be soon over since both government agreed for arbitration. Y.E.S. for arbitration!!!

Bay of Piran is cradle of Serbia! eeee… Slovenia! It looks like Slovenia is 20 years behind Serbia. National extremism that was there during Milošević’s regime is rising nowadays in Slovenia! The border dispute with Croatia is the most important tool for manipulation with voters emotions, so no doubt Janša, Podobnik and Jelinčič would do a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g. to keep status quo and keep the dispute unsolved for another 20 years!

Yesterday there were student demonstrations in Ljubljana that ended pretty violently by smashing facade of Slovenian parliament. Everybody was in shock that this sort of thing happened in downtown of Ljubljana. Today I was talking to a journalist that just returned from Greece and we discussed the matter. I told him that I was on the biggest demonstrations in the world, that was in London 2002, where people demonstrated against UK participation in war in Iraq. There were about 1,5 million people and demonstration were peacefully and supported by numerous intellectuals, pop-stars, politicians,… And I remember the moment vividly how I was astonished by the power of democratic, peaceful movement. Can you imagine 1,5 million people joining at the same spot for the same idea, sending one message? AMAZING!!!

When UK joined USA in occupation of Iraq, I couldn’t believe it. Sincerely I couldn’t. From that moment on I shamefully admit that I think Slavoj Žižek is right when he’s saying that if demonstration aren’t violent, people with power don’t take it seriously. People of power understand only power. I’m ashame to say that, but I’ll participate my part of pressure solely through my camera. However I don’t support majority of students demands emphasized by ŠOS & DOS. ŠOS is filthy rich organization living from students earnings.

PS: Did you noticed a rock in girl’s hand while kissing? Rating stars on the bottom.

This is a new portrait for Striptiz rubric of Mladina weekly. Nataša Živkovič is an emerging actresses that recently had her first solo theater performance in which she invited her mother to play. I did this portraits in Tivoli park in Ljubljana. I used two Balcar flashes, one with honeycomb, one with softbox, powered by Elektrona’s Flash feeder and NIkon D3. Tjaša Zajc assisted me. Thx!

Few weeks ago Joe McNally was in town and today I tried out few of his tips. I bought a small Firefly softbox for my flash SB900 and I quite fancy the diffusion of the light from 1,5 meters away from subject. I usually use a 70 x 50 cm softbox with Balcar 1500Ws flash and of course the bigger the better, but also heavier…

Then I tried out a real good tip from Joe McNally. I illuminated our dinning room with a flash from outside the house and trigger it with airsync radio triggers. COOOOOL! Can’t wait to use this technique on next interview for Mladina weekly!

To get a proper morning light yellow color cast I just set white balance to 6500K.
.
.

Last few weeks were exhausting indeed. Beside my daily work for Mladina I’ve been doing jobs for Peugeot / Futura, Talaso Strunjan | Terme Krka, Nikonschool.si and working at the construction of the house, so I haven’t blog much. Here are portraits that I haven’t publish it yet on this blog.

Aleksij Kobal, portrayed in a context of his last exhibition “Forbidden city” in Equrna Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Branko Lenart, creatively portrayed on his exhibition Hand:Work in Gallery Photon

Jiri Bezlaj, a scultpure maker

Aljana Primožič, an illustrator. She exhibited her political illustrations in Slovenian parliament and her work was censored by President of parliament.

Lucija Stupica, a poet. I had a completely different idea for the portrait, but then I read the text that she wrote about her work, where she’s talking about coexisting in the same place and time, I decided to do this portrait. (Inspired by rebekka guðleifsdóttir)

Jean-Christophe Couet send me this artwork that you’ll enjoy as much as I did. No, JC. didn’t took it, it was done by Boštjan Pucelj, Jean-Christophe just add typography.
Below are two old portraits of JC.

A huge progress in a construction of our house. I’m all days working and my wife Alenka is running this show. Two more months and we’ll be in.

PS: On Friday evening there was a night storm in Alps as seen from Dolenjska.

Here is an interview with Joe McNally during his visit in Ljubljana. I’m truly inspired by his work and his open attitude. From day one in college every professor was preaching specialization in your work and as much as I admire photographers that developed a style that is recognizable, I somehow never succeed to impose a style on everything my lens focus on. I mean of course when you see my creative portraits, Flower Power, Tour de Dayton or any other project a style is recognizable, but every project I use different language. Not to mention that in my commercial career I do whatever kind of photography demands a job. When conversation comes to this topic I’m (almost) apologizing and explaining that it’s different if your marketplace is a nation of 60 million residents or if it’s less then 2 million. And it’s different if your photography pays your rent or if it funds your whole family + funding a construction of a house.

But that’s in the past. I met this great man, who openly says that he enjoys his time behind a camera and do the kind of photography that does the job. The best quote from the interview is “When you say YES to a client, their problems becomes your problems”. My thoughts exactly!

I showed him my Striptiz creative portraits and he really liked it and even mentioned me on his blog (here). Thanks JOE!!!

I hope you’ll enjoy the interview. Later during the day I’ll upload an mp3 version for your walkman