Anže Kopitar / LA Kings, back in Slovenia

A bouquet of white roses with Anže Kopitar and fans. Ljubljana Airport, Slovenia.

To keep my promise to post pics more regulary, here is a picture that I’ve shot few hours ago. It’s taken when Anže Kopitar famous hockey player that won with LA Kings the Stanly Cup. Picture belongs to my Flower Power series, where I document flowers on news events in a way that I don’t celebrate politician or a famous person, but I focus on a flower and the famous person on the picture is degraded to a disturbing background. If you don’t see the concept in this picture, please take a look on my site where Flower power project contains flowers with Putin, Bush, DalaiLama, Mubarak, Merkel, Powel, Jnaša, Drnovšek, Turk,…

PS: Actually the picture above is straight from the camera. Here is a bit fine tuned version.

Exhibition Flower Power

Flower Power exhibition. Photo: Alenka Peterlin

Flower Power exhibition. Photo: Alenka Peterlin

Last two weeks there was a lot of stuff happening with such intensity that I didn’t had time to blog about it. So, Flower Power exhibition in Sokolski dom, Škofja Loka was a success, exhibition looks great. I exhibited 35 images and it works really well if they are many images together. If it would be just a single or just few images, it would be a gag, but all together works really well, raising issues of news making, objectivity, spin public relation,…
The exhibition is open until 7th of March 2012. Here is a video about the project if you haven’t see it yet.

Flower Power – photo exhibition

I’m inviting you to the opening of my show on Friday 3rd of February 2012 in Sokolski dom in Škofja Loka, Slovenia.
About the project:
As a photojournalist for the weekly Mladina I have been daily photographing press conferences, politicians’ handshakes, and other “flash for cash” photo opportunities. At a certain point I became frustrated with these news-safaris, where the press officer in charge determines my and other photographers’ view angle, the timing and the expression of the politician(s). Searching for an approach that would motivate me personally, I decided to document the flower arrangements accompanying such public functions. At every event I thus also take a personal picture in addition to the usual news images, a picture that is out of the pre-set context. Instead of glorifying some important politician, it sets flowers in focus, thus degrading the politician to unsharp background that distracts the composition. The cure works perfectly and now I look forward to every press conference, no matter how trivial it is. 
I have been working on this project for over six years now. With my Flower Power bouquets I have captured also world leaders, such as George Bush, Ban Ki-moon, Romano Prodi, Angela Merkel, DalajLama, Vladimir Putin and others. Let me quote Marcel Štefančič who commented the series: “A hundred years from now no one will know who these politicians were, what their names were, but everyone will still know what these flowers are called. That’s it – Flower Power.”
Portfolio on my site www.borutpeterlin.com

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Vabim Vas na otvoritev razstave Flower Power v Sokolskem domu v Škofji Loki, v petek 3.2.2012, ob 19. uri. Več na moji strani www.borutpeterlin.com
Kot fotoreporter tednika Mladina dnevno fotografiram tiskovne konference politikov in nešteta rokovanja, kjer nas osebe za stike z mediji pripeljejo na točno določeno mesto, nam odmerijo tako zorni kot, čas fotografiranja, kot tudi nasmeh politika. Ta novinarski fotosafari me je spravljal ob živce do točke, ko sem se prepričal, da ob vsem tem medijskem pompu, mora biti nekaj, kar nihče ne fotografira ali snema in s časom ugotovil, da so to cvetlični aranžmaji.
Od takrat poleg običajnih novinarskih fotografij še dokumentiram cvetlični aranžma in tako politične veljake degradiram v neostrini moteče ozadje. Zdravilo deluje in bolj butasta novinarska konferenca je, z večjim veseljem jo fotografiram.

From Kaunas photo festival in Lithuania

Last week I was in Lithuania at Kaunas Photo festival where I exhibited my Flower Power images upon invitation of Mindaugas Kavaliauskas. We’ve met at Viena Portfolio Review (a report from Vienna). The festival was great, I met so many great people from all over the world, exhibitions were great, I loved their evening talks and Kaunas Photo Star projection. My Flower Power exhibition looked fantastic. Organizers of the exhibition Mindaugas Kavaliauskas and Donatas Stankevičius did a fantastic job. The exhibition was in the Kaunas botanical garden, indoors and also outdoors. It was really great to see my pictures among flowers, trees, bushes

Eric Freedman, an associate professor of Journalism and a Pulitzer Prize-winner wrote an article on my exhibition. YOU GOT TO READ IT. His blog is so well written, I would like to be his student!

Few more images from the festival:

Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, photographer, curator and organizer of Kaunas Photo festival of photography at the opening speach of an exhibition of author Steve Hart.

An exhibition of Steve Hart, at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Talk by Steve Hart at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Talk by Steve Hart at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Talk by Steve Hart at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Talk by Steve Hart at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Talk by Steve Hart at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Luca Zanier, the winner of Kaunas Photo Star competition at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, photographer, curator and organizer of Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, photographer, curator and organizer of Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Borut Peterlin and Steve Hart in front of a print at the exhibition of a project Flower power at bothanical garden in Kaunas, at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

An exhibition of a project Flower power by Borut Peterlin at bothanical garden in Kaunas, at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

An exhibition of a project Flower power by Borut Peterlin at bothanical garden in Kaunas, at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

An exhibition of a project Flower power by Borut Peterlin at bothanical garden in Kaunas, at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

An exhibition of a project Flower power by Borut Peterlin at bothanical garden in Kaunas, at Kaunas Photo festival of photography.

Flower Power and Vladimir Putin

Regular readers of my blog know well my Flower Power project that is a personal rebellion against politics and news-photojournalistic-safaris. Instead glorifying politicians I’m focusing on plants and degrading politicians on disturbing background. It was exhibited on 6th U3 Slovenian art triennial in Gallery of Modern Art in Ljubljana, which I consider a Rock and Roll achievement. Yesterday Vladimir Putin was visiting Slovenia and I’ve made this pictures of beautiful plants. I hope you will enjoy it and let Flower Power be with you.

Redni bralci mojega bloga poznajo serijo Flower Power, kjer kot osebni protest proti politiki in novičarskim-fotosafarijem, fotografiram cvetlične aranžmaje in namesto, da bi glorificiral velmožje, jih degradiram na moteče ozadje. Serija je bila razstavljena na U3 – trienale sodobne umetnosti v Sloveniji v Moderni galeriji, kar si štejem za čisti rok in rol dosežek! Včeraj je bil Vladimir Putin na obisku in naredil sem te čudovite botanične fotke. Upam, da vam bodo všeč in naj vas Flower Power spremlja.

Bombs away!

Bombs away! New year demands cluster bombing with best wishes. I hate FB cluster bombing when they tag your name to their picture (thank you, but no thank you). I also hate mass emails.

This December I barely survived. Too much work. I didn’t had time for anything and so I decided that I’ll not do a “Merry Christmas and happy new year” carpet bombing, but just send few Flower Power catalogs around the world. To whom did I send? Majority of catalogs I gave away at Vienna Portfolio Review Show. This catalogs are printed only in 60 pieces (print on demand), so I decided to send it to Galleries, editors, art directors,… Basically to refresh and revive social network that got idle for a while. I also send it to few new addresses. I was checking magazines and websites to see who out there might be interested in my work and on Rhubarb Rhubarb Festival site I saw an advertisement of Flowers Gallery. Of course I couldn’t resist to send them a catalog of Flower Power project. Who knows what, when and if will happen, but one thing is for sure. When sending promo material around it’s like buying a lottery ticket. That day of purchase you daydream what will you do with all that money and the same goes when sending your art around, he,he…

Back to the Art

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In the end of November I visited Vienna Portfolio Review. For those who don’t know what is portfolio review about, it’s basically meetings with experts from photography and art world. That is editors, curators, gallery owners, agents, art directors, collectors… Artist pay a participation fee and then he meets a reviewer for 20 minutes. The participation fee varies from 99 EUR for 6 meetings to 260 EUR for 18 meetings. Of course I decided for 18 meetings in two days (plus few informal ones). On Monday I quit my job as photo-editor and on Thursday I went to Vienna with a new portfolio. No way back

Ob koncu novembra sem obiskal Vienna Portfolio Review in za tiste, ki ne poznate te dogodke, so to srečanja fotografov s strokovnjaki s področja fotografije in umetnosti, to je uredniki, kuratorji, galeristi, agenti, umetniške vodje festivalov,…. Umetnik plača udeležnino za dvajsetminutno srečanje s pregledovalcem. Udeležnina je tu znašala 99 eur za šest sestankov in 260 za 18 sestankov v dveh dneh. Seveda sem se odločil za vseh možnih 18 sestankov (in izpeljal še par neformalnih). V ponedeljek sem dal odpoved kot fotourednik tednika Mladina in v četrtek sem šel na Dunaj s svojo novo portfolio. Ni poti nazaj

I made a portfolio just out of my Flower Power project. I learned by on my mistake in Arles that 20 minutes is enough to present only one project. I decided to follow archival, museum standards and printed my art on acid free 100% cotton paper, pigment colors, with acid free mat and that I’ll fasten prints only with corners. On this kind of portfolio shows is very important what you leave behind. Beside a visit card I prepared a small print-on-demand catalog. I received great feedback on the Portfolio Review show, but we’ll see what compliments will be realized in the following year. What’s the most important is that I felt I’m presenting my art in the best possible way that I can. The awareness that it’s worth it, it fells good. Very good.

Naredil sem portfolio samo iz Flower Power serije. Naučil sem se iz napake v Arles, Franciji, da 20 minut, kolikor traje sestanek, je dovolj za predstavitev enega projekta. Odločil sem se, da sledim smernice muzejskih, arhivskih standardov. Printal sem na brezkislinski 100% bombažni papir, s pigmentnimi barvami, z brezkislinskim paspartujem in da bom pritrdil printe samo s kotniki. Pri takšnih portfolio šovih, je ključno kaj pustiš za sabo. Odločil sem se, da poleg vizitke, pripravim tudi majhen katalog. Katalog sem tiskal na način print-on-demand, se pravi digitalni tisk, le 60 kosov. Na Portfolio Review dogodku sem prejel res veliko dobrih odzivov, a prizemljen pričakujem prave rezultate šele naslednje leto. Kar je najbolj pomembno je občutek, da predstavljam svoje delo na najboljši možni način, kot znam. Občutek, da je vredno, res dobro dene. Zelo dobro.

Lately I feel obsessed by Art. When I watch an art piece of whoever in whatever field, I can feel the dedication, the creation, the passion, the story behind it. It’s similar to chess. On the surface just a pieces on board, but deep under it’s a battle of armies competing in speed, precision, tactic… The principles that I’ve learned in chess and Martial Arts are identical to principles of art. This thought is neutralizing the feeling of guilt that arrouse because I skipped many exhibition openings because of Muay Thai trainings and burn quite some midnight oil for chess games

Zadnje čase se počutim obsedenega z Umetnostjo. Ko opazujem umetniško delo kogarkoli v kateremkoli področju, čutim predanost, kreativnost, strast, zgodbo za delom,… Podobno je šahu. Ob površnem pogledu le figure na šahovnici, a poglobljen pogled vidi vojski, ki tekmujejo v hitrosti, natančnosti, taktiki,… Principi, ki sem se jih naučil pri šahu in borilnih veščinah, so dejansko enaki principom v umetnosti. Ta misel nevtralizira občutek krivde, ki sem ga dobil, ko sem izpustil mnoge otvoritve razstav zaradi treningov tajskega boksa in skuril mnogo prostega časa za polnočne igre šaha.

I’m meeting so many artists and they are fueling my passion to the art. This week I was blown away by Matjaž Berger, Pavle Ravnohrib and the rest of avantgarde theater Anton Podbevšek Teater. Then I spend an afternoon with Ive Tadar a body artist that does not make a compromises in his work. More about him in later post, but let me just mention his most infamous performance, when he drilled a hole in his knee (link).

Srečujem mnoge umetnike, ki me napajajo mojo strast do umetnosti. Ta teden so mi dih vzeli Matjaž Berger, Pavle Ravnohrib in ostali člani Anton Podbevšek Teatra (več v ponedeljek). Potem sem preživel popoldne z body-art umetnikom Ive Tadar, katerega najbolj zloglasni performans je, da si je v koleno zvrtal luknjo. On res ne pozna besedne povezave umetnost in kompromis.

As you could conclude, my next resolution is to steer my career back to the Art. In the beginning of December I even had a talk on a theme from Artist to a craftsman and back. Nikon Days is the largest photography event in Slovenia on which in a single afternoon more then thousand photographers gathered. I articulated my case in a clear way and that’s another indicator that I know what I’m doing.

Kot ste že sami prišli do sklepa, je moja (pred)novoletna obljuba, da usmerim svojo kariero nazaj v Umetnost. Na začetku decembra sem imel celo predavanje na temo Od Umetnika do obrtnika in nazaj. Nikonov dan fotografije je najbolj obiskan fotografski dogodek v Sloveniji, kjer se v enem samem popoldnevu zbere več kot tisoč fotografov. V predavanju sem jasno artikuliral mojo odločitev, kar je še en znak, da vem kaj počnem.

Photo / Foto : Matic Kos

Colin Powell in Flower Power bouquet at Bled Strategic Forum

You know my FLOWER POWER project, where I make a photographic revolt against public relation and the world of politics. It started as a joke, but now it’s exhibited in Museum of Modern Art in Ljubljana, so it’s officially ART! These are my yesterday’s pictures. I can’t decide which one is better. Which one is more nihilistic?

Vote, rate, share

PS: Garry Winogrand, my inspiration, would be proud.

Simon Perez and Flower Power project

I made a new picture for my Flower Power project. Last week Simon Peres was in Slovenia and I made this Flower Power images. First one is the best. Bodyguards guarding Flower and not president Peres. Great that I have Simon Peres in my FLOWER POWER bouquet along with George Bush, Angela Merkel, Ban KiMoon, DalajLama, Romano Prodi and Janez Drnovšek many others.

About Flower Power article by Marcel Štefančič in Mladina weekly

In this issue of Mladina weekly there are four pages devoted to my Flower Power project that was exhibited at U3 – 6th Triennial of Contemporary Art in Slovenia written by Marcel Štefančič. It’s a really great text and I recommend. Leave some comment if you read it.

In the past I exhibited my work also in Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Museum Doland in Shanghai, Host Gallery in London, but this exhibition is surely the peak of my artistic career. This is the most I can do at the moment and I’m damn happy with the result. I’m receiving great critics from various people. Yesterday Majda Širca, Minister of Culture introduce me to Samuel Žbogar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and he was delighted with my picture of him (HERE).

What’s next step? The Flower power exhibition in Slovenian parliament at the end of this year and a book…

Here are few more souvenir pictures from the U3 opening night.