Population zero, by Nemanja Jovanović

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Abandoned mining facility on mountain Rudnik

Interior of the mining facility on mountain Rudnik

Obituaries on the barn in one of the villages in east Serbia on the mountain of Stara planina. Almost all of them date couple of years ago, because village is unpopulated now. Only some road workers and travelers pass through it.

The villages meeting/cultural hall. Village has been abandoned for a couple of years now, but this hall and the writings on the wall are dating from the communist era, some 25 years ago. It's strange that these kind of symbols survived for that long.

Some furniture is seen in one of the abandoned houses in a deserted village on Stara planina mountain.

Deserted military post, near the Bulgarian border that was used for training and as a living quarters for border soldiers. It ceased to exist as such same time when Serbia and Montenegro union broke.

When the last villager left, all the houses remained untouched by the human hand, as did most of the people belongings in them

House being "swallowed" by nature

When the last villager of Repusnica died, his family just left all of his things and the house interior untouched. It looks the same as the day he died, and the whole village with him. Repusnica was just the first village with population of zero in this part of Serbia.

Dirt road connecting, now deserted, villages

4.800 total number of villages in Serbia
1.961 villages are completely or almost abandoned
86% of villages have constant decline in population
2.000 will disappear in next 10-15 years
260.000 single men in their fifties are living in villages
50.000 number of houses in the abandoned villages
145.000 houses are marked as “presently uninhabited”

564 days ago

Nemanja Jovanović

After graduating from the Art Academy, major in Photography, Nemanja worked as a staff photographer in several Serbian daily newspapers. His photographs were displayed at major republic exhibitions, as well as in various magazines and agencies, both locally and worldwide. Nemanja has urge for adrenalin driven situations, and he’s very experienced in working under conflict circumstances. His passion for life photography and photojournalism always pushes him in the first rows, closest possible to the action. Nemanja’s long list of awards includes Grand Prix for best media photography in Serbia in 2009. as recognized by Press Photo Serbia organization, who awarded him five more times in the past few years , for his photo reportages in the following categories: In 2009 in Sports, in 2010 in category Daily life, in 2011 in category Environment and in 2012 in categories Portraits and People. He was awarded by “Vilnius photo circle” international photojournalistic organization in 2010 and 2011 for his documentary photo stories. He received three prizes from Status magazine, two of them in 2009 and one in 2012, including Grand Prix for best media photography in Serbia in 2009. Nemanja participated in several workshops held by great names in modern photojournalism: Alexander Zemlianichenko’s lecture during Photocircle festival in Vilnius (Lithuania), in 2010, and Yuri Kozyrev’s lecture at the same festival in 2011. He was chosen as participant of the workshop with VII agency photographer Donald Weber in Belgrade, Serbia, and Dirk Jan-Visser workshop supported by World Press Photo in 2010.

Population zero, by Nemanja Jovanović

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