BORUT PETERLIN in a rabbit hole of photography

Last week I’ve made a group portrait of students of fashion design in Ljubljana at Katedra za oblikovanje tekstilij in oblačil. In my series of creative portraits for Mladina weekly I usually make a portrait of a person, not very often a group portrait, but this portrait was about students that will have a great fashion show on 2nd of June 2011 at Kino Šiška.

It’s so hard to make an interesting group portrait. When I stepped in the room, I noticed many, many of those dolls and I knew I need them for the picture. In the middle of the room were tables. I knew I can’t build a compact composition if I will have a huge rectangular in the middle of the room, so I decided to move tables a side. You can see there are many many tables and I wasn’t sure if the room will look better with tables at the side, but I was sure it doesn’t work with tables in the middle so I got people engaged with moving tables to the side. That was the most tense moment for me. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I needed to give an impression I know exactly what I’m doing, so people would trust me. Did I say I’m awfully good at that? Anyhow, when I got a huge hole in the middle of the room, I asked people to bring drawing chairs from other room and align them strictly.

My concept was, OK, if I can not highlight a single person, I will depersonalize the portrait using patterns and perspective. I explained to students that I want to picture them as a platoon of Chinese sewers. Few of them found it funny, but few of them got really upset. Anyhow I asked them to trust me and on the end we all loved the image.

Last week I received a CD of Jazz Slovenia 2011 compilation and in a booklet is my portrait of my friend Igor Lumpert. It’s great to see a portrait with a time distance of four years (link), that I even forgot that I’ve made it and judge it again. I’m pleased with it, it’s great, I love it! I’m overwhelmed when I meet pictures that I deliver them, but now they are grown ups, living their own lives

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I’ve been in Srebrenica and also in a morgue with several hundred unidentified bodies and also in Crni vrh – Zvornik the largest mass grave from a genocide in BiH. I wish Ratko Mladić a fair trail, because fairness is what he deserves, although it can not be delivered in Haag or any other trial and also not in a/one lifetime, but he will get what he deserves! Above are images from Crni Vrh, Potočari, Sarajevo, Bijeli potok, Srebrenica. The sign on a billboard, written in Cyrillic is taken in Serbian part of BiH and my best translation would be “It is difficult to god, the way we are!”.

Here is a story I’ve done after the arrest of Karadžić.
PS: I remember clearly a Milošević’s speach and shouting of masses “We want weapons…” that day everybody knew that snowball is rolling and it can not be stopped. Strangely enough I can’t find the clip on youtube, only Milošević’s reaction “Ne čujem dobro, ne čujem dobro to šta tražite”

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Before I start blogging about my portraiture again, let me use this opportunity and publish some pictures that are done in the meantime or as JC would put it Out of series – series (unfortunately he doesn’t have that series on his site anymore). Pictures are taken in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy.

Oh… If you’re interested in one really great festival in Lithuania here’s their call for entries Kaunas Photo Star 2011. A link to PDF.

Beli sladoled (White ice cream) is a world-known painting group consisting of two academic painters, Miha Perne and Leon Zuodar. They develop drawing as an autonomous fine art medium. Beli sladoled acts on the principle of the »Kinder egg«, which means that their every exhibition is a surprise on its own.

I received a brief to do their portrait on Sunday, that’s the day before the shoot, but this paragraph above from their site is all that I needed to know. They act as by the “Kinder egg” principle, I act by the principle of Terrahawks – “expect the unexpected” which is a perfect concept to start from if you don’t have a concept at all.

They won this year’s OHO prize, so first we planned to make a photograph at Vžigalica Gallery with the podium, but it was Monday and the Gallery was closed and we couldn’t get the keys.

So we met at Metelkova. I was an hour early, so I was relaxing on a sun like a sand lizard then I walked around Metelkova and noticed a guy named Eddie that was building something with bricks and had a shopping trolley full of bricks. I asked him if we can borrow his bricks with a shopping trolley and of course there are no problems at Metelkova

My first concept was to present them as a brick dealers in a dark brick lane of Ljubljana and the ideal brick scenography was not far from Metelkova, just beside the Old Power Station. Miha and Leon dressed themselves in their official uniform and we walked down the street to the location. We had such a laugh on our way and even more when the trolley flipped. When we arrived on the location I tried a picture with a trolley, then I was wondering if I can do a simpler image without the trolley and you can see different takes until we came to a final scenario that you can see above.

More creative portraits you can see on my site www.borutpeterlin.com, but since I wasn’t updating it lately I recommend also my flickr account. Anyhow don’t forget to rate, share, comment…

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Tone Stojko is a legendary photojournalist and photoeditor of Mladina weekly, whose many images are part of Slovenian iconography, foremost the arrest of Janez Janša (31. maj 1988). His latest exhibition are beautiful images of body in movement, a picture series that he started already in 1974 and I remember when I was in secondary school, about 16 years of age and I saw his catalog of portraits of Neca Falk an artist and also his wife and I remember that I was so impressed I was showing the catalog to senior colleagues asking how did he do this kind of pictures. His exhibition is still open until 3.7.2011 in Galerija Jakopič.

When I walked in his studio I knew I’m about to photograph a photographer that was a role model for me and knew I was in great time pressure since I had to photograph new creative portrait for Mladina in the next hour and I didn’t had a clue where and how will I photograph both of the portraits. That’s the name of the game in photo-journalism, so I don’t get stressed any more, I just do my best and rockandroll. In this case I loved his spacey studio in downtown Ljubljana, full of sunlight, high ceiling and two cats. Those two cats, jumping around and studio full of sunlight were an inspiration. I recalled a Bresson’s image of Henri Matisse with doves and I wanted to make something in this feel. That’s how I work. I don’t try to do the same kind of image as Bresson, I’m trying to catch that kind of feel, the kind of mood, that I get from the image, I’m inspired by. I hope you’ll enjoy it, leave a comment, rate and rockandroll!