Titoism

Vaso Banjac, my grandfather was born in 1935 in Bosanska Dubica, a municipality which suffered one of the largest systemic destruction in World War II by the regime of the independent country of Croatia and the Third Reich. His real stories about torture in concentration camps the loss of his family members lead me to create this project a short time before his death with the goal of documenting people who were close to him.

"Titoism: Amid Nostalgia and Desire" is to connect the past with the future through political subjects with the goal of elaborating the era of history with political differences through the years. The photos are of elderly people with their memorabilia and idols from the Era of Yugoslavia. As time passes, people pass and that is why this project is a documentary for the existence of Macedonia and the Macedonian people in Yugoslavia. As the author I aimed to depict the similarities found between the differences; I photographed people who worked different trades and professions and always focused on a common theme between them. Even in old age, people usually stay true to their trade and because of this, I also depicted their symbolic creations which together create one piece. Josip Broz Tito was purposefully selected as the subject in each photo because his presence was imminent, it was a piece of them - sometimes more sometimes less. Sometimes his presence is lost in time yet present. In representing their idol through photography, even though these photos are an account of a past time, I have one goal which is to create a political distinction and to initiate new dimensions in which this project's realization creates a political discourse in Macedonia after its independence in 1991. By using a conceptual approach, the antiquities show the lives and creations of the subjects in these photos, but they are also the authors of their work shown with them which claim their space and show their value.

This is a series of 39 photos - ten stories, short biographies and items from the subject's craft illustrated through photography.

Zoran Sekerov