Sarajevo in Joegoslavië, april 1943 1943 - 1944

This is a series of photographs, four in total, from Sarajevo in Yugoslavia, taken in April 1943 by an anonymous photographer. It’s so interesting to see these images presented as a group, like a series or progression of photographs, that reveal how the photographer experienced the city. There’s a lovely quality to the surface of these prints; the light bounces off them in a way that animates each image. The grainy texture in the black and white tones gives them a feeling of immediacy, like you could almost reach out and touch the damp street scene. If you look closely at the top left picture, you can see a figure standing next to a donkey, and the way the light catches the water on the ground makes the scene feel so alive. Collectively, these photographs evoke the mood and atmosphere of a specific time and place in history and could be exhibited alongside the work of Helen Levitt, who photographed similar street scenes in New York. It’s a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself, echoing and transforming across time and place.