Exhibition

Photography Exhibition:

 WE ARE HERE, 2023

Mare Milin, Stanko Herceg, Sanjin Kaštelan

 The photography exhibition is the result of collaboration between the Festival of Tolerance and the Croatian Union of Youth and Students with Disabilities (SUMSI). The aim of this project is to raise awareness about the lives of people with disabilities and serves as a reminder of the importance of inclusion, understanding and support. Inspired by the Oni/They exhibition of the photo-portraits of refugees from 2019, the We Are Here exhibition presents portraits of people with special needs through the artistic vision of photographers such as Mare Milin, Stanko Herceg and Sanjin Kaštelan. These photos are not merely pictures; they tell the stories of courage, endurance and dignity.

 The photographs of Mare Milin showcase Lovro through three different shots and warns about how often we escape from the reality of people with special needs. There has always been the stigma that is attached to individuals with disabilities. Congenital, acquired, complete, partial, whatever it may be, such disabilities are often the subject of frequent retreats, misunderstandings, judgments and alienation. We are born to understand, accept and collaborate. For this reason, I decided to take photographs of Lovro, who boldly lives his life with disabilities, in a step-by-step way revealed in three different types of shots – the close-up, medium and long shot. The close-up and medium shots evoke a person, while the long shot is experienced as a person in a wheelchair. It is interesting that I used retreat because that is what many people do in contact with a disabled person. However, it is also interesting that, without any prior acquaintance, I started with a close-up photography of Lovro’s warm and dear face, taken at close range. That is how relative it all is. And in the end, it all boils down to the question of whether we approached the object at close range or whether we retreated and moved away. As a person, I would always get closer, but as a photographer, for the purpose of this assignment, I retreated in order to show you that Lovro is HERE.

The bridge as a symbol of conquering obstacles and a metaphor for overcoming the barriers that people with disabilities face is a recurrent motif in the work of Stanko Hreceg: “I have portrayed Nevena and Nikola not standing on their neighbourhood bridges, but precisely under them, thereby criticizing society that neglects people like them. They live their lives hidden under the bridge, out of sight, unable to overcome everyday physical obstacles. The majority do not take note of Nevena, Nikola and others like them, leaving them “under the bridge” and thus condemning them, taking them for granted, trying to find their own way and fighting obstacles that the rest of society does not even take into account.”

Sanjin Kaštelan guides us through an intimate process of collaboration with models, which exposes both sides: “The biggest challenge is to portray fragility, silence, to freeze its moment in time, while at the same time not to take anything from it. The challenge is to bear witness without intervening the process. The moment of meeting Patrik’s eyes, which are full of life, unfolding the universe of a strong man, is quite intimate because it exposes consequently  making you ever so grateful for the gifts of life. It is incredible to witness Patrik walking around the neighborhood where the portraits were created, because this skill of mastering physical space is a daily practice of each of us, hence a portrait of normality. That is to say of Patrik.