The story behind the site
I know that my arrival is not important but I saw people looking for me with a camera, taking pictures of a dynamic sky. And again, maybe they took pictures of each other under the Belgrade sky, unaware that I’m watching them. It was probably so. However, I saw them and remembered them well. Long after that, I’ve looked for them in my memories and one day I saw them and I knew – this is them.
I wasn’t baptized in a church on the Bled lake although my soul always loved lakes. Now when years are behind me, I’ve travelled to the lake to remember where I secretly wanted to touch eternity through baptism. But the church in Voždovac – the church of Saint emperor Constantin and empress Jelena is the most beautiful and significant church in the world (this is where I was baptized).
I began to love nature. I think that the city concrete repelled me with its coldness and unnatural uniformity, so my being started looking for an authentic and unaffected surrounding. I bought a camera so I would remember everything clearly, took my backpack and started searching for beauty. The daybreak, early mornings, the smell of meadows and the healing air became my favorite photography motif. Oh, how happy I was.
I continued to travel and search. The thought of God, circumstances, or maybe my strong will led me to frequently visit Kosovo & Metohija to take pictures. In the beginning, I wanted to see and feel a part of our history and tradition. I saw a beautiful country and met many monks that, as heavenly guardians, walk our lands and the lands above. I would come to dedicate the whole cycle of pictures of Kosovo to this. Martinian (the monk on the picture) could bless with a gentle smile, while walking on these lands. Martinian is my friend.
I’ve always loved children, their movement, vitality, and laughter; but also their silence, for whose purity I’ve wondered where it resides. I understood, while taking photographs of them, that they are not our children, that they belong to their own worlds, and that they will also, as we will be, some day forgotten. I noticed, I took pictures and I wrote about them, careful not to disturb them on their way.
I also noticed the old age, transience, grand finales of things, animals, people. We’re all leaving with clouds and strange lights. Why the boat? Everything is there – the travelers who have departed and the workers who finished their job and left. Anchored with dignity, it awaits its turn.
The city I love or that I have loved. The romantic nights, the street lights of warm yellow colors. Now it’s different. I don’t like the pink colors, loud clubs, moving silicones that think they represent beauty. I want the Belgrade that was, that is gone now – and I hope it will return some day.
Yes, I attach everything to Belgrade that was the city of my youth. Now I take photographs of this youth because we’re sometimes unaware of our feelings and perceptions until they’re suddenly gone, overcome or until time bends us like a young flower.
Yes, everything was there – first rendezvouses, crushes, loves, magic touches, and unimaginable sensuality. I noted, and do I stand under the Tina Ujević tree, well, the time will tell.
And now there is She, the one that picks up rays of light for my and her soul
I sense a well-known path for all of us – I often have, as any other that faces these thoughts. I’m trying to transform my thought into photography, at least as an evidence of my perceptions and sometimes sad thoughts.
What comes next? Belief comes next. I believe, I see blue grass, I expect the lights that I’ve sensed, silences that are like the most beautiful music, and the smell of freshness and heavenly freedom.
Aleksandar Radoš, one sunny July day of the 2019 flight of the Lord