SOGO Art Gallery, Saltmarket Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
82-86 Saltmarket, Glasgow G1 5LY
https://sogoarts.com 14th Jan – 6th March 2022
Join photographer Chris Leslie for a visual walk through of his new photo book, A Balkan Journey. A Balkan Journey is a photo book of photography and essays from Chris Leslie, who takes us on a photographic journey through the towns and cities of post-conflict Former Yugoslavia through an extensive and previously unseen 24-year archive from the region.
The book includes photography and stories from Sarajevo during its reconstruction and healing from the longest siege in modern day history, through the eyes of the Sarajevo Camera Kids – a photo project set up by Leslie to teach local children photography skills. A Balkan Journey also maps the journey peace has taken across the war torn landscapes of Kosovo and Croatia, providing a penetrating insight into the human stories behind one of the most influential periods in modern European history.
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It has been over a quarter of a century since the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the worst conflict in Europe since World War II. Between 1992 and 1995, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina claimed over 100,000 lives and left over two million people displaced from their homes. BAFTA Scotland (New Talent) winning photojournalist and filmmaker, Chris Leslie, has documented war-ravaged towns and cities of the Balkan region over the past 25 years. In his latest visual arts project, ‘A Balkan Journey,’ Chris provides a window into a lived experience, amplifying the voices and stories of ordinary people as they understand their past and face their future. Senior Fellow Payam Akhavan and Massey Alumna Delila Bikic speak with Chris about his never-before seen photographs and the ways in which film can capture the intimacy and raw emotion of human experience as a journey from conflict to a particular version of peace.
Live on YouTube here >
This event takes us on a photographic journey through the towns and cities of post-conflict former Yugoslavia in this extensive look inside Chris’s previously unseen 24-year archive from the region. John McDougall examines the wider implications of the war alongside the ripples which are still felt today both in the Balkans and internationally.
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A Balkan Journey will be presented by Chris Leslie in the opening panel discussion – Reflections on Bosnia since 1995 alongside Janine di Giovanni, Yale University; author; journalist, Peter Lippman, Independent human rights activist and researcher; author and Velma Šarić, Post-Conflict Resource Center, Sarajevo.