WHO WE ARE
Belgrade Photo Month is a permanent team of 10 people, but also a great group of contributors who are passionate about art and photography.
BPM 2025
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Buddhist monk and meditation teacher, dubbed “the world’s happiest person” by Time and National Geographic magazines, says that every creature wants to escape suffering and find happiness. However, suffering and tragedies still exist (and probably always will, as they are part and parcel of life, should we once again refer to Buddhism). Yet, this year’s Belgrade Photo Month wants to address the notion of Post-conflict.
According to Cambridge dictionary, conflict is “a situation in which beliefs, needs, facts, etc. are very different and cannot easily exist together or both be true.” But what happens after the conflict?
The festival participants will explore the topic of post-conflict from various perspectives, starting from the inner state of post-conflict, showcasing journeys of overcoming trauma and depicting personal resilience and strength. The festival’s flagship project that will explore this topic is I Drink by Canadian photographer Kourtney Roy. The theme will also explore social post-conflict that arises from communication between oneself and others. The works will show the efforts to rebuild social fabric and highlight the stories of reconciliation, healing and re-building of trust among people.
Political post-conflict will be presented through projects that document the aftermath of wars, revolutions, and political upheavals or capture the reconstruction of societies, challenges of peacebuilding and restoration of civil order. Economic post-conflict will illustrate the revival of economies and livelihoods after financial crises or destructive events, as well as the examination of the role of innovation, adaptation, and community support during economic recovery. Environmental post-conflict will explore the results of conflicts between human beings, nature and other inhabitants of the Earth. It will address the recovery of ecosystems after natural and human-induced disasters and showcase the efforts to heal the environment.
What will remain after the conflict? The answer to this question is to be found by each and every human being on their own. Will every single person, individually, and the world in general, find inner strength and compassion to transform conflict into a post-conflict with positive outcome? We shall see.
Tatyana Valova, Curator
MISSION
As we like to say, this festival belongs to us and to you; it is a festival for people from Belgrade and Serbia, but also a festival for photography enthusiasts from every corner of the world who want to enjoy it, in person or online.
Many things have changed since we started the festival in 2016, from the team members to the very vision of the festival, from its visibility in the media to the different kinds of support we have received from both volunteers and institutions.
From one year to the next, we feel an increasing obligation to continue improving the quality of the festival, as well as our outreach, and this is not an easy task. We are aware that with last year’s festival we raised the bar high in terms of the quality of work exhibited, and despite the extremely challenging situation in Serbia concerning financial support for cultural manifestations and culture in general, we will persevere in our endeavours to make the festival even more special. Through our imagination and creativity, we will transform these challenges into concrete objectives to continue promoting photography in Serbia and Serbian photographers to international audiences.
Thank you all on behalf of the entire Belgrade Photo Month team. I would also like to thank all participants and visitors; all partners who offered exhibition or presentation spaces; all our volunteers, sponsors and organisations who have helped us to make this dream possible.
PARTICIPANTS
Who can participate in this event: art galleries, art and cultural institutions, which tend to organize photography exhibitions or movie screenings, groups interested in organizing workshops or any other photography related activities.
Participation requirements: Just the commitment to work during April 2023 in the same direction as Belgrade Photo Month. Nothing more.
What we offers to the participants: The promotion of the event in Serbia but also in international photography webs and magazines. We will make a catalogue with all the details regarding the participants, including a map with all the related events and places around the city and other relevant information as well.
CONCLUSION
We’re not sending a starship to the moon, we just want to put Serbia on a photography map of the world!
