Photo by Zoran Marinović

We are happy to present you our colleagues from Photodox. Here, you can read about their work and how they describe themselves.

PHOTODOX.com / you could call us a collective or a farm, where works are being done not by farmers but photographers. We like to say that this is one website on which a whole world is on display!

We as photographers need to travel the world with eyes wide open, to be able to witness the time. As famous Polish reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski once said: “Here and there you need to to get drunk with the right people at the right time. ”

Sometimes we need years of work on a single assignment  yet in every moment we try to catch a clear, untold picture of the world. Unfortunately or not, during all these odysseys we witness spectacular defeats and futile triumphs.

Truth is, you do not need to travel around the globe too much to find an accident or injustice because certainly we live in wounded world. As for photo reporters tasks each one of us has its own specialty.

Stipe Surac is a permanent contributor of National Geographic and his specialty is the Mediterranean as it once was, and what we want it to be. Beside African motives, Vedran Vidak in a last couple of years passionately follows wild horses of Livno Valley. Goran Jovic explores the tribes that still haven’t accepted the modern way of life. Marino Brzac is a multiple award-winning underwater photographer. Ivan Vidakovic explores animal wildlife of Kopacki Rit. Ivan Djelmic uses photography as a concept, and Zoran Marinovic is covering all major world conflicts and wars. Moreover, in last 20 years there was almost no single war, from Afghanistan to Sierra Leone, which we haven’t witnessed with our cameras.

Our numerous associates, journalists, cameramen, editors, are described as the best in the region! On the website you can find short movies, video clips and documentaries, which moreover are taking over the usual form of investigative journalism. We made movies about prison life in Paraguay, child-witches of Congo, living goddess in Nepal, and for a documentary feature of Pygmies we recently received an award at the Zagreb Film Festival.

In addition to investigative journalism we try not to ignore humanitarian work, because, we don’t feel that we need to only take, as in the majority of those special moments we share the fate of those photographed. Turning our backs to them and leaving them behind to come back to the safety of our homes is something that we can not and do not want to!

Exhibitions are always good way of helping. We managed to build a school in a war-torn town in Congo, bought a sewing machines for the girls who were accused of being witches, donated computer equipment to a prison and bought six goats to a young man who could not muster a dowry. As far as the photography is concerned, it is difficult to tell where one ends and where life begins!

If we’re asked what is our diagnosis – the camera is a disease, and photography is cure.

PHOTODOX.com is something in between!

Photo by Zoran Marinović

Photo by Vedran Vidak

Photo by Vedran Vidak

Photo by Stipe Surać

Photo by Stipe Surać

Photo by Marino Brzac

Photo by Marino Brzac

Photo by Ivan Vidaković

Photo by Ivan Vidaković

Photo by Goran Jović

Photo by Goran Jović

You can visit PHOTODOX website to see more work

Belgrade, 18.05.2013. (Photographer: Marko Rupena©Kamerades)

Children walk through the installation called Little factory of effects, during the opening of Museum Night in Belgrade. In this night, 150 cultural institutions, in Belgrade and other Serbian towns, are open for public, presenting various exhibitions, installations and performances. This event is part of the European Night of Museums held in 40 countries. Belgrade, 18.05.2013.

Photograph: Marko Rupena©Kamerades

PTICA, the only genuine jazz club in Belgrade, 30. April 2013.- Officially designated by UNESCO, International Jazz Day brings together communities, schools, artists, historians, academics, and jazz enthusiasts all over the world to celebrate and learn about jazz and its roots, future and impact; raise awareness of the need for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding; and reinforce international cooperation and communication. Each year on April 30, this international art form is recognized for promoting peace, dialogue among cultures, diversity, and respect for human rights and human dignity, eradicating discrimination, promoting freedom of expression, fostering gender equality, and reinforcing the role of youth for social change. This time jazz club PTICA brought out old masters like Miša Blam on bass, Miša Krstić on piano and Ljuba Paunić on saxophone followed by Jovan Radulović DJ set on vinyl.

Photographs: Saša Čolić©Kamerades

Orthodox Christians in Serbia mark Easter on May 5th this year. Many believers attend the service, served by Patriarch Irinej, at the Saint Sava temple in Belgrade. Belgrade, 05.05.2013.

Photographers: Nemanja Pančić and Marko Rupena

On May 4th, 33 years ago, a harizmatic leader of Jugoslavija Josip Broz Tito has passed away. He was respected by many and well known to people all around the world. His funeral gathered some of the greatest world leaders of the time. Today, many of Titos worshipers still come to his grave on this day, to pay tribute to their respected leader. They speak with nostalgia and sadness about the past times when “everybody had what they needed for life, and even more, they were free and united”. Most of the worshipers come from former Jugoslav republics – Slovenia, Macedonia, Croatia…

On this blog, we have a special guest, well known photographer Voranc Vogel from Slovenia. Interesting part of the story is that he started with photography during war years, when Slovenia was not so easily assesible from Serbia. Marko Risović started his photographic journey at the same time, but kilometers down the Sava river. The fact that they are close causins, and that they didn’t know about each others passion for years, makes the story a bit spicy. Long live “brotherhood and unity”!

Photographers: Marko Risović, Marko Rupena and Voranc Vogel

You can see the work of Voranc Vogel on his website

Nemanjas represented us in Amsterdam with dignity. Indeed!

In February, seconds after the results of 2013 World Press Photo contest were announced, one photo and the name underneath echoed like thousands of drums through gray Belgrade winter morning. That was the moment of immense pride for our little collective!

It is difficult to rate art, to glorify it and dogmatically compare it to other work of art. Yet, the photo of Nemanja Pancic was declared as the best in the world of photojournalism, in Observed Portraits category. Nemanja’s compassionate portrait of little Milan Ponjiger, who continued his young life after a family tragedy, has caught the eyes and hearts of the jury. Starting from today, this photo will be seen by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. If there is the way to share the pain and somehow make it smaller, we hope that every single one of many who see it, will tear off, piece by piece, all the sorrow from Milan’s eyes.

Nemanja was speaking about this photo today, during the World Press Photo Awards Days, in front of some of the most influential people from the photojournalism industry. He is in Amsterdam now, together with camarad Nemanja Jovanovic, where they represent themselves, our collective, and Serbian photography. Thank you guys for making us all proud once more!

A sense of things and events, constantly repeating themselves in chaotic way, but nothing ever changes and you keep on waiting.

Therefore, to be continued…

Belgrade, Serbia, 9. April 2013. – Thirteen people, including six women and a child, have been shot dead after a 60-year-old man went on a shooting rampage in a village Velika Ivanča near Belgrade. The man, identified only as Ljubiša B, used a handgun in the rampage. Villagers told Serbian reporters the man first killed his son before leaving the house and shooting his neighbors some of whom were still asleep. Twelve people were killed on the spot, while one person died in a Belgrade hospital and few of them are in critical condition including assassin himself. Motive for the killings was not clear. The suspect in the country’s worst mass killing in its modern history turned the gun on himself, and remains in critical condition. Police blocked off the village while they investigated.

Photographs: Milovan Milenković © Kamerades