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Aljosa Bakaran
@who.is.backi
Art director based in Germany
If you ask me where my passion for photography comes from, I would instantly say, “from my heart.” I know, that’s not the point of the question. But for me, it’s the truth. Since I was a young kid I was fascinated by art and photography, because I figured out that I could nearly lose myself in watching awesome photographs. But I think it started even before, with my interest in movies and games. I was born in the middle of the 80s, growing up in the 90s and 00s. So my childhood was filled with some great 90s movies and computer games. At this time I also started painting and drawing and finally discovered photography to be my favorite passion. On my 14th birthday I got a camcorder, started making some videos and discovered the “snapshot” function of my camera. So I shot many self portraits and edited them in Photoshop.
"I think all of this, discovering and enjoying the diversity of visual creation throughout the years in a variety of ways, led me to where I am right now."
"Though there’s one moment in my life that changed my whole vision on everything."
I was born in Bosnia but was raised in Germany. So in my mind and in my heart I’m a German, and Germany is my home. However, for a short period of time, when I was 11/12 years old, my brother, my mother and I had to move back to Bosnia for a while. At the time this was very frightening and horrifying to me. My father stayed in Germany, so my family got literally ripped apart. When I came back to Germany and after a really hard time for me as a kid in Bosnia coming from the German culture, I felt like I’d lost something on my way back. There was this gap in my life that I couldn’t explain. The relationship with my parents had gotten worse and I escaped into Designing and Photography. These had become my new anchors in my life and I figured out that art filled the gap.
"Now I’m 33 years old and when I look back at my childhood I can say that it was not very lovely and nice - but it made me who I am today."
I work as an Art Director now; I can say that visual creation is my life and not just a job. I decided to go for this career because I knew that photography is a wonderful passion but very hard to earn secure and good money with it. So I chose to become a designer. My photography skills and the vision I developed over the years helped me a lot in my work. I can say that I really love my job; I’m dealing with creative topics every day, accepting and overwinning new challenges every day, and recognizing my personal growth every day. Nevertheless, I believe it is not important what you do but how you do it, no matter if you’re photographing or designing or doing something totally different. If you put love and your passion in it, it will turn out great and amaze others.
It’s not that easy to describe why this desire exists, but I figured something out for myself; there lies purpose in everything you do in your life. No matter what it is. We are human beings, living in a weird world, on a small planet in the middle of nowhere. But why? That is the question that has been driving me crazy my whole life. Why are we here? What is our purpose? To me there can only be one answer: love. I know this sounds very romantic but when you think about it, it’s true.
At this point I want to quote one of my favorite poets, and from one of my absolute favorite movies, which influenced me in a way I cannot describe.
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?” Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”
Character of John Keating quoting Walt Whitman, from Dead poets society.
To me this quote is something special. There’s so much reality and truth in the words of Walt Whitman, even nowadays. Love is a force transcending time and space, being the one thing that drives us in life. If you took away our love, what else remains? We just become persons with no identity. No feelings. No desires. No passion. There needs to be love. It is a force that constantly leads me through life and fills me with happiness.
"I found out that photography is the key to release this love from my heart, as well as poetry."
As I mentioned before, I always loved to watch great movies, and filmmaking and poetry to me are very similar. The images that are created as a result of a good written poem or story, always fascinated me. So I also started writing stories and poems when I was a teenager. I remember that my biggest dream in the past was to live in a small house in the woods, at a lake, in the middle of nowhere and writing stories and poems. Poetry helps me to refresh my creativity everyday. And especially old poems show me that it does not matter in which time we are living and what technical achievements we’ve got, the core of us, as human beings, is always the same:
"The need to be creative and express our thoughts. With words. With photography. With art. That’s what I love in poetry."
For me personally, there’s also another happening in my life that showed me how important love is: the meeting of my wife and the birth of my daughter. After marrying my wife and the birth of our beautiful daughter a lot of things changed in my life. I became more responsible and mature and realized that there can really exist such an intense connection and love between persons, an intensity that I never imagined or felt before.
"There is so much more in our world than we might think, feel and see. The energy between people, but also between nature and animals."
When I focus on details, on the smallest, it gets more intense and I feel more alive. I believe that, if you go deeper and dive into the structures, and keep going deeper to “see” the atoms, you will discover another world, another universe. It makes me sad that many people are not seeing this, are not aware of this other universe. Maybe that’s why I love to photograph the details and structures of nature. I try to demonstrate the beauty that can be found in our world if we genuinely and patiently contemplate.
"Personally I’m fascinated by structures of nature, especially of woods and trees. I don’t know exactly why, but walking through a forest just calms me down."
Many people say that they are afraid of the forest especially in the dark, and ask me: “How can you walk through a forest all alone in the dark?” But to me, there’s nothing else that makes me feel more safe than walking through a forest and listening to the sounds of nature and the animals. Just think about it for a second – animals are fleeing into the forest to feel safe and hide from danger. They are fleeing from us, humans, seeking protection there where the ecosystem is not dramatically disrupted, where the nights are dark and silent and the days peaceful, being guided by the rhythm of nature. And maybe, I’m also trying to escape from a digital driven and fast world, finding my way back to my roots.
"I think the stories I find in nature, the stories I live, are reflected in my art."
Our work, our creativity, our imagination, is the mirror of our soul. And our soul mirrors our feelings and thoughts. So when I’m editing, for me it’s utterly important to create a specific look and convey the mood and feeling I experienced while photographing. I don’t look at other works or photographers to recreate a certain look, I’m just trying to leave my own fingerprint, in the hope that people understand what I felt in the moment.
When I was a teenager, I worked for an old analog photographer. The slow and detailed process of photographing and developing analogue intrigued me and even today I’m using my analogue cameras from time to time. I adore the process because it brings me back to the essence of photography: telling a story. You need to have a vision in mind, know what story you want to tell – often inspired by the experiences and feelings you had when shooting. When you allow yourself to have an intense experience and let your soul speak, you naturally achieve a strong vision and can create a meaningful story.
"A good story doesn’t need expensive gear to come across. It can be told with a simple smartphone, or poetically, with words. But sometimes also with silence."
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