Budapest 2018

Skills: Outdoor Projects

At the Art Market Budapest 2018, Duplex100m2 will be exhibiting a solo show of the Sarajevo based photographer Ziyah Gafić.

The photographs presented are taken from 3 large photographic projects realized between 2007 and today: Trouble Islam, Quest for identity and  Heartland.

Trouble Islam

This is a series of photographs documenting the aftermath of war and violence in the daily lives of people living in dominantly Muslim societies. My aim was to capture the quiet, the loneliness and the determination of people trying to carry on with their lives after the very fabric of their community, their rituals and their social life has been torn apart.

Quest for identity

In all their simplicity, these items are the last resort of identity, the last permanent reminder that these people ever existed.” A stark but powerful tribute to the victims of the Bosnian War.

Heartland

Heartland is a long and tedious journey through my war ravaged homeland. It’s been twenty years since the war ended. But peace can’t simply be the absence of violence. Bosnia is locked in self perpetuating cycle of ethno-politics, ruled by ethnic elites and rapidly devastated in suspicious privatisation of public companies. The state is so weakened by nepotism and systemic corruption that it may as well qualify as failed state. I aim to capture the quiet, the loneliness and the determination of people trying to carry on with their lives after the very fabric of their community, their rituals and their social life has been torn apart while thousands of missing Bosnians are still being exhumed from mass graves across the country.

Biography

Ziyah Gafić (1980) was born in Sarajevo, where he graduated in Comparative literature

In 2001, his reportage won “Ian Parry – The Sunday Times Magazine scholarship”. Same year he also won the Second prize at prestigious “World Press Photo” contest, while a year later his photo essays won both the First and the second Prize at prestigious photojournalism contest “World Press Photo”. In 2001 he also received “Joop Swart Masterclass” grant. Following year he won “Kodak annual award for young reporters” at Visa pour l’image festival and the “Special Mention by the HSBC foundation for photography”. In 2003 Photo District News included him among 30 emerging world photographers and he won „Grand Prix Discovery of the Year“ at Rencontres du photographie Arles. In 2005, his work won “Giacomelli Memorial Fund award” and, in 2006, he was nominated for UNICEF’ Photographer of the Year. In 2007 he received Getty images grant for editorial photography for his project „Troubled Islam“, same year he was awarded at Photo District News annual contest. Gafić’s works are also included in American Photography Annual in 2007. Same year he was finalist for Hasselblad Masters award.

In 2010 his project Quest for Identity won award in personal category at Photo District News annual contest.

He contributes to some of the worlds leading publications such as Amica, La repubblica, The Telegraph Magazine, Tank, L’Espresso, Newsweek, Le Monde., GEO. As photographer he covered events in over forty countries. His photo essay on the aftermath of Bosnian war was published in the book „Tales from Globalizing World“ by Thames & Hudson, “Quest for Identity” by De.MO and “Troubled Islam” by War Photo LTD while selection of his photographs are included in overviews of contemporary photography: „Photography as Contemporary Art“ by Thames & Hudson.

His main topics are societies in transition; from Bosnia & Herzegovina to Rwanda, from Chechnya to Iraq.