COHESION STEFAN JOVANOVIĆ
Photography Exhibition
ABOUT THE PROJECT Cohesion exhibition represents a display of harmony of completely different aspects of life filtered through the author’s characteristic technical approach. There is an attempt to convey to the viewer the true aesthetics the author experienced as a witness to a specific scene, thus freezing the perfect moment of cohesion between light and dark tones in one series, strong and saturated colors compared to black and white classics, and a cohesion of functional automotive design with ambient architecture, attractive force between molecules of baroque splendor with minimalist purities as its opposite. The goal of the setting is to direct the observer’s attention to the color of a given moment with different tones and characteristic use of saturation while integrating the author's personality, taste, and way of thinking into it. In most of the works, with the main subjects that glorify the beauty of functional car design, Stefan tries to redefine the fine art category with subjects that have not been sufficiently artistically exploited in the past. He forms a universal resonance in his work by putting photography as a whole in focus before the brand thus configuring a completely new visual vocabulary.
BIOGRAPHY Born in Valjevo in 1990, Stefan is Magister of Pharmacy and published author in prestigious domestic and foreign magazines as a photographer and passionate automotive enthusiast. The love for photography appeared long before the idea that he would deal with it in this form and with the aspiration to raise it to much greater heights. Already at the age of 10, he discovered analogue Olympus Mju-II in the drawer and started with documentary photography, however, the first serious macro and landscape photos were taken in 2009, when it appeared in the well-known Serbian photo magazines such as ReFoto and DigitalFoto. An insatiable appetite for the automotive world led him to change his artistic direction in terms of thematic but years of technical preparation and the development of a unique aesthetics from his previous work helped building a unique style responsible for today’s work. Working in an artistically exciting environment, he always tries to redefine the Fine Art category of photography with each new frozen moment, by combining the opposite aspects of life through a unique technical style and use of light and post processing techniques. Lives in Belgrade and available internationally.
COHESION “Expression of feelings and documentation of moments as seen or interpreted in real time is not easy to transfer to a two-dimensional medium, a high level of technical ability is needed to translate a real-life moment into the language of aesthetics and play with light through the camera”.
“As an author, as an observer through a camera viewfinder, I try to integrate a part of my view and my perception into each of these subjects. As Exupéry says in the Little Prince – “You can only see well with your heart. The essence cannot be seen with the eyes.” Although the main organ by which we perceive photography as a medium is the eye, I do my best to make the observer feel the intention behind it – the heart”.
“As a technical device and instrument of movement, the car offers the most developed and widespread interface for human-machine interaction, functioning as a bearer of the meaning of an individualized standard of living, a means of distracting oneself from others, but also an instrument of personal profile building. Representing one of the key achievements of civilization, the car in the cultural-sociological context presents the concept of mass production, status in society, but also a fetishist aspect of the desire to own one...” – Michele Blanusa, excerpt from the text: Phantasms on Wheels. In his art Stefan Jovanović deals with completely different elements which he synthesizes into a whole that deals with the aesthetics of beauty, grandeur and luxury. Via his lens, the artist provides an opportunity for the observer to see the car in a different way than normally on a daily basis. In Stefan’s photographs, the car is not just a means of transportation, but an object of attention with which the owner pays tribute to engineering, care, and emotion woven by the human hand that participates in the creation of the car as a useful object. His photographs of cars exude the carefreeness of some past times, refined taste, and even the beauty of the preciousness that guarantees admiration. The artist’s lens stops at the perfect silhouettes, comfort and elegance of the interior and pastel retro chassis. Stefan’s photographs represent a harmonious blend of minimalism and baroque splendour of interiors that are in the sphere of sublime individual living standards and habits. Theatres, operas, museums, and palaces are also Stefan’s subject of photography.
These public spaces are far from unapproachable and inaccessible. However, these are spaces that have their own audience. It is a refined audience that admires the interior itself, but also the beauty of the art that lives in it. Culture and art are more heightened spheres, for some a way of life, for some escapism from the real, but an absolutely unique world that provides a sense of sublimity and enriches the spirit. Enjoyment of observation is the key element that unites all the elements of Stefan’s interests. Although, its halls are empty, seats free, and cars parked, the photographs have a certain cultal-sociological context that is focused onthe individual and his personal enjoyment of the contents of the space we see, in the interior, in the design, and the beauty of perhaps the most functional object of today’s world. Stefan’s work contains black-and-white and colour photographs, passivity (observation) and activity – the use of objects and space, like the metro and the opera, architecture and cars. All these subjects of the artist’s interests are a cohesion of beauty and taste, with an emphasis on quality and ease of enjoyment in perfect moments that life provides, all in the style of La Dolce Vita. Ana Kršljanin, art historian
La Dolce Vita (left) Horizontal
Irish green
Green over tan
Gold (detail, left) Baroque
Coral Red (left) Opera
Beverly hills
Pastel
Miami Vice
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Some photos tell a story, convey a message, but I think that it does not have to and should not always be the core of photography. Clear, pure aesthetics of a moment or an object can in itself enrich the ambience and inspire a person, and in those cases minimalism simply looks good”.
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British Racing Green
Emerald
The Matrix Reloaded
Nightcall
Ashtray
Jet leg (left) Contrast
Timeless silhouette
Les Deux Magots
The Wall Street call
Parisian petrol Sunday
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So when it comes to the foreground, the aesthetics of the car, object, interior, or some spontaneous moment are more dominant, but I try to redefine the concept of luxury in the sense that the term itself should refer to the richness of spirit, creativity, love of engineering, racing, the beauty of architecture and decoration, rather than the material value which, although it is essentially only a consequence of the process of production of a certain object, in today’s world it has been transformed into an ideal to which it aspires to become, a status symbol.
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