Looking through a family album as a child, I wished to take photographs myself. My grandparents had no choice: when we entered a photo laboratory to have our holiday pictures developed, I insisted that they buy me a camera. Little did they know where that would lead.
It was an ordinary pocket camera, but from my childish point of view, it was beautiful and excellent—so modern! Several years later, I came across different Prakticas, and upon entering Graphic High School, I received a Canon AE-1 Program. For my first professional assignment at Dnevnik, I received a Nikon F-4c and even bought another one for myself.
This marked the beginning of my first serious photo shootings. The bar was high, and I could not afford mistakes. How could I show poor negatives to the three supreme lab technicians of the Magnum Club—Izabela Petrović, Vera Jelić, and Zlata Vislavski—or step out of the darkroom into a room full of veteran photo reporters? All of this obliged me to try harder and constantly think about improving my work.
Dnevnik’s photo department chief, Jaroslav Pap, was a man of few words but always ready to help with practical matters and logistics. The most one could hear him say was: “Think, use your head.”
Senior colleagues Branislav Lučić, Ilija Ramić, Dragutin Savić, Goran Mulić, and Radivoj Hadžić shared advice over office morning coffee before heading out into the field. I also received guidance from, then somewhat younger, Slobodan Nikolić and Dejan Lazarević, who never minded that I might be a form of competition to them.
Just as children are raised by their grandparents, we—the young generation of photographers—were nurtured by retired Dnevnik employees who still visited the offices almost daily, as if they still worked there. It was a rare kind of photo school, priceless and impossible to buy. Legendary photo reporters Jovan Vajdl, Stevan Lazukić, Gavrilo Grujić, and Borivoj Mirosavljević enjoyed passing their knowledge to younger colleagues.
Although retired, Bora Vojinović would watch passers-by from his balcony in the town center and offer advice to younger photographers, closely monitoring our progress in the press. Advice, well-meant criticism, and words of encouragement also came from Ana Lazukić and Gabor Ifju, photo reporters at Magyar Szó.
Martin Candir’s backpack, containing full photo equipment, was always at my disposal for major assignments whenever I needed a piece of equipment.
Upon my arrival at Tanjug, I received a warm welcome from esteemed photo reporters Vladimir Dobričić, Vladimir Dimitrijević, and Neđo Deretić. There, I discovered the world of agency journalism and, for the first time, collaborated with Associated Press, Reuters, EPA, and many others.
Those who knew how to observe and listen could learn a great deal even from brief encounters with world-class agency photo reporters such as Dušan Vranić, Srđan Ilić, Darko Vojinović, Petar Kujundžić, Marko Đurica, Srđan Sulejmanović, Aleksandar Stanković, and others.
My transfer to Večernje Novosti, the largest and most serious daily newspaper of the former Yugoslavia, helped me expand my previously acquired knowledge by working alongside an excellent team of journalists and photo reporters led by editor-in-chief Manojlo “Manjo” Vukotić.
Teamwork with photo reporters Dragan Milovanović, Peđa Mitić, Igor Marinković, Zoran Jovanović Mačak, Nikola Fifić, Matija Koković, Ratko Radetić, as well as the wonderful female colleagues Anđela Stanković and Anđela Mišić Atanacković, has been a true pleasure.
Many photographs might have gone unnoticed—or not been taken at all—if I had not been partnered with some of the best journalists and reporters. Most frequently, I worked with Jovanka Simić, Đorđe Vukmirović, Ljiljana Preradović, Nemanja Subotić, Jelena Lemajić, Milan Bozokin, Jasna Budimirović, Snežana Miletić, Srđan Basić, and others.
Daily journalism can sometimes diminish the love of photography and kill the passion for capturing images. Spending time with enthusiasts and fanatics gathered around the Photo Association of Serbia restores the energy necessary to keep moving forward with a camera.
Top-notch photo reporters often use their vacations to take photographs for personal pleasure, something they cannot always do because of their duties. This proves that the vast majority of them do not only live off photography—they also live for photography.
Darko Dozet
