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“The Sarajevo they documented no longer exists, and for me it was important for Sarajevo residents to be able to remember those times,” Leslie told BIRN.
At the time, Leslie worked on a photographic project with young residents of the Bjelave Home for Children without Parental Care in Sarajevo, and the photographs taken in the period between 1997 and 1999 depict the devastated capital just after the siege ended.
Photo: Muhamed Bosnjo
“Using donated equipment from Scotland, I set up an improvised dark room and organised photography classes in the orphanage basement. I developed only a few of those photographs back in the late 1990s and they were sitting in my closet gathering dust. Two years ago I finally scanned them using a high resolution scanner and the results were amazing,” he said.
Photo: Program participant, Nusret
“The students I worked with at the time were aged between six and 16. I taught them the basic photographic techniques,” he explained. His students are now adults, and stories about their lives will form part of the exhibition.
After the opening, the exhibition will remain on display at the City Hall for ten days. On Thursday, Leslie will also present his book ‘Balkan Journey’, a visual document of the former Yugoslavia in the wake of the 1990s wars, at the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
Photo: Chris Leslie
