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Andrija Ilic
@andrija_ilic_images
Photographer based in the Faroe Islands
Spending summer and winter holidays with my grandfather on a mountain where he grew up made the biggest impact on me developing that urge to explore, experience, love and feel comfortable in nature, the urge to always reach behind the horizon. We are talking about a serious wild mountain range in Serbia where you still can hear wolves howling in a silent winter night, and we are talking about my granddad who was a real highlander, a war veteran from WWII. He made me fall in love with the wilderness, he taught me all those tricks and hacks that will come in handy many years later.
"But most of all I learned how to love and respect nature."
Passion for traveling I picked up from my parents, who in their young age moved from Yugoslavia to Germany where I was born. And ever since I remember, we were somewhere on the road traveling – I was constantly licking the car window on the back seat being fascinated by new landscapes, towns, and villages. Always excited for what’s coming next.
Photography came very silently into my life, at first modestly knocking on a small door, not giving any clue it would one day be my love for life. My parents’ home was full of magazines, and as I loved geography, I enjoyed reading articles and photo stories from different parts of our planet, always imagining I was exploring them myself. Then once, still young and in primary school, I came across a war story from Lebanon with shocking scenes of chaos and terror. I don’t know how and why, but I silently said, “I want to do this.” Strangely enough, 10 years later war came to our doorstep in Yugoslavia.
I was fed up with being in a dark room and later in a color laboratory, making prints for my boss who owned a photo store. I quit that job, took my old Minolta and went out. I wanted to document everything that was going on, leave a trace behind me and make my own impact on the war. First photos were published and so I began my professional career. I was unstoppable, being out there for months, rarely coming back home. I didn’t want to miss anything.
"Even when I got shot, I kept working with a bleeding hand. I guess it’s a passion that us photographers can only understand."
Even though Serbia is a very beautiful country with really diverse landscapes and astonishing nature, those war years have created more known names in war photography and photojournalism than in landscape photography. One of them is Goran Tomasevic, my friend, idol, and Pulitzer prize winner, from whom I learned a lot. Not about how to make photos, but all the other hacks and tricks on how to navigate in a combat zone, how to get yourself to the spot where you take photos, how to create a network etc.
"The time I spent with him in Israel was absolutely precious."
I took my first shy landscape shots on my short breaks between going back and forth to the Kosovo conflict and later to Israel. Every time I got back home, I needed time alone, and there’s no better place than nature. So, I drove into the unknown with a backpack with food supplies and a camera. Sleeping on mountain tops, abandoned castles or actually, wherever I could… I discovered a whole new Serbia, that was beautiful, green and untouched. Almost lost in some of the last centuries before the war. Later on I tried the documentary field as well, doing stories on Gypsies (Roma people), poor living conditions, refugees returning home after 10 years being in refugee camps, whale killing in the North Atlantic etc.
"When my son was born, I decided to end with my war adventures. We moved to Faroe Islands, a paradise for photography."
My transition from war and documentary photographer into landscape photographer was not easy at the beginning. It demands a totally different approach to photography and to visual perception of what you are after. Instead of working in chaos where you have to act in a split second, suddenly I was faced with having all the time in the world in a peaceful environment. I had to change my mindset as well, and step by step I got there.
I understand the frustration of photographers who come here for a week. It’s an expensive trip, and sometimes they don’t get the photos they were after due to rough weather, rains, winds etc. I have the privilege of living here and I take full advantage of that. If I don’t get that photo of that mountain today, I will come back tomorrow.
I started preparing my photos by scouting my spots, visiting them often, making test shots in different light conditions, getting familiar with what the landscape can offer, following the weather forecast and using all the time I need to get the photo I want. And even if I am happy with the shot, I keep coming back trying to get a better one.
"It’s a waiting game and I am willing to play."
A photo that is somehow most dear to me was taken a few months ago on a mountain called Sornfelli near Torshavn. It’s a place with a great vantage point and view over fjords and mountains of the Faroe Islands. I was checking this spot for a long while; I was after a photo of a sunset breaking through the clouds. While waiting for a sunset I saw a stone pillar called “witches finger” in a beautiful shady light with all tones of purple dawn colours. I took a test shot and it looked pretty nice. Then I saw a seagull flying around that scenery. I took him in a viewfinder and started following him. Of course, at first he was flying everywhere but at the spot I wanted him to fly. I was just patient and persistent, waiting for him to go where I wanted him to be for the photo. At the end, he flew only once across the “Witch Finger” scenery, enough to make the wait worth it. I took a few snaps, and one of them was a photo I fell in love with. Later on, like a cherry on top, the sunset was exactly how I imagined it in my head. Dark moody sunset above clouds with rays of light spreading around the landscape. It was an unforgettable evening. I was happy my kids were with me, cause I got to brag a bit saying, “that’s how daddy does it!” (Haha.) Both my kids, daughter of 11 and son of 14, are totally into photography. My son just inherited my old Nikon and he is handling it pretty well, being totally in love with long exposure shots.
Outside of the Faroe Islands, one of the most impressive moments in my travels was definitely doing a solo hike on the 54km long Laugavegur trail in Iceland. I was totally not prepared for that and rather funny circumstances were leading me to this adventure… I was partying with my Icelandic friends for some days and felt it was time to go on a “rehab” so I asked a friend to drive me somewhere where I could be alone in nature for a while. I got the basic food supplies and he drove me to that trail. Four days of hiking on really rugged terrain in rough weather was something I really needed. The landscapes along the trail are hardly describable with words, and I am not even sure if my photos show the full experience. That part of Iceland is incredible and the trail transfers you from one world to another; the trail starts by hiking up on a glacier that slowly turns into rhyolite mountains, black obsidian lava landscapers, wheezing hot springs, black sandy desert and then ends in a lush forested area.
Having been to Iceland and living on the Faroe Islands have influenced my photography. I have started working on creating my own recognisable style, leaning toward moody and dark shots. I believe it’s a long term process and I just have to be patient to shape my work towards that goal. I can say that photos and photographers published on Nomadict come as a big inspiration, because I can recognize, define and shape the style that I want to achieve based on that.
A style or creative idea always originates in various sources of inspiration and is a result of personal experiences and interpretations. It’s beautiful and special to sometimes find yourself at that deeper level of introspection and see in the final image the complete journey that shaped it.
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