The one photo of my hometown of Sarajevo that I took. Usually, I’m much more prolific but this time around I just wanted to live there…without the camera around my neck.  A friend of mine asked me why I loved this city so much, and I was surprised by the question and had no poetic answer. I still don’t. Maybe because the city is still so real, it’s not cookie-cutter pre-packaged. It’s raw. It’s unorganized. It’s unapologetic. It has problems, and maybe to a designer such as myself these challenges present themselves as opportunities, as genuine, honest design-soul-bread that’s ready to be cracked. I once heard that designers will never be happy because the world is so ugly, constantly throwing in our face endless problems to solve—but that’s exactly what makes me happy—the challenge of making the bad, good. I want to prove to myself and others that things can be better, that there is progress, that with the combination of right attitude, skills and most of all empathy for ourselves and others, we can improve bit by bit. Call me an idealist, go ahead, I’ll own that title proudly.  As I leave Sarajevo for now, I leave optimistic and inspired. December couldn’t come fast enough.  Until we meet again…
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The one photo of my hometown of Sarajevo that I took. Usually, I’m much more prolific but this time around I just wanted to live there…without the camera around my neck. 

A friend of mine asked me why I loved this city so much, and I was surprised by the question and had no poetic answer. I still don’t. Maybe because the city is still so real, it’s not cookie-cutter pre-packaged. It’s raw. It’s unorganized. It’s unapologetic. It has problems, and maybe to a designer such as myself these challenges present themselves as opportunities, as genuine, honest design-soul-bread that’s ready to be cracked.

I once heard that designers will never be happy because the world is so ugly, constantly throwing in our face endless problems to solve—but that’s exactly what makes me happy—the challenge of making the bad, good. I want to prove to myself and others that things can be better, that there is progress, that with the combination of right attitude, skills and most of all empathy for ourselves and others, we can improve bit by bit. Call me an idealist, go ahead, I’ll own that title proudly. 

As I leave Sarajevo for now, I leave optimistic and inspired. December couldn’t come fast enough. 

Until we meet again…

The little town of Počitelj literally and figuratively took my breath away. I left inspired.

This place has been around for a while, since at least the 1400s and has served as a place of strategic importance to the Hungarian Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire. Today it is a UNESCO world heritage site and has one of the oldest art colonies in southeastern Europe. The tiny city has colorful historical details throughout, such as the tree that grows in the mosque’s garden that was brought in from Lebanon and planted in the 15th Century. 

Blagaj is a small town south of Mostar, situated at the spring of the Buna river—which itself is one of the finest examples of underground karstic springs, and largest such spring in Europe. At the river’s spring, built into the cliffs is a Blagaj Tekke—a Sufi monastery—which was built sometime in the 1600s. It is currently under renovation and repair and closed to public, however one can hire a guide and venture into the cave by the Tekke, to check out Buna’s source and see the Tekke up-close. The cliff that towers over the spring and the Tekke has a breathtakingly powerful and dwarfing presence, and my standard lens does not do justice in capturing its magnificence. 

Mostar is a city in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the main center of the Herzegovina region. It is known worldwide by its UNESCO World Heritage Old Bridge, which was reconstructed in 2004 after its demise during the Bosnian War in the 90s. The meticulous reconstruction took about five years.

Originally, the bridge was built in 1558 by the Ottoman architect Cejvan Kethoda and was hailed as the greatest architectural achievement in the Ottoman controlled Balkans. It spans about 30 meters (~98ft.) and is a perfect semicircle. Quite possibly one of the most photogenic man-made areas in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with possible exception of the town of Pocitelj—photos of which I will post soon. I obviously took many more images than the ten I am sharing here—if you can do so, do pay this city a visit. It is inspiring in more ways than one. 

Jablanica is a small town in central Bosnia and Herzegovina most famous for an epic World War II battle codenamed Fall Weiss in which the Axis-led forces aimed to destroy the Yugoslav Partisans’ central command, as well as the main hospital. Heavily outnumbered and pocketed in-between the Nazis and the Chetniks, under the leadership of Marshal Josip Broz Tito, the Partisan forces blew up the only bridge across the Neretva river, thus confusing the enemy long enough to rebuild the bridge, eliminate the Chetnik troops and save the wounded.

In 1969, this battle was immortalized in the most expensive movie production for the region (~$12M), which was subsequently nominated for the best foreign movie at the Academy Awards. For the purposes of authentic filming and claiming that the spot will turn into a tourist destination (which it did), the director was allowed to blow up an actual bridge over the river Neretva, twice. However, due to heavy smoke caused by the explosions, the footage was never used. The bridge seen in the images above is that very same bridge that was destroyed for the purposes of filming, and is now integrated in the monument to the epic battle of 1943. 

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