Enough for a Couple of Lifetimes – Interview with Marko Ercegović

Photo by: Ana Opalić
Ana Opalić: I’m very curious about how you do your work … you take your time, do it on the go, creating several series simultaneously, and then you transfer the photos from one series to another? Tell me something about your work on the series Pie in the Sky [Golub na grani]. How long did it take you to come up with that title?
Marko Ercegović: I didn’t have it right till the end. I envisioned this series as a series of photographs that meant something to me and I didn’t care whether they would mean anything to anyone else; I just had this collection of photos which were particularly dear to me … without even knowing the reason why. Or without having an apparent reason. What I do know is that these photos provoked this tiny feeling…when I was shooting or now when I watch them…a feeling of affection….which you feel in your fingers, you know, like you’re reaching for…a pie in the sky. So I created this collection guided by that feeling. And the title…well, I had dreadfully traumatic experiences with titles.
A. O.: I find your titles to be excellent; I’m always enviousbecause it seems you come up with them with ease.
M. E.: No, it takes work! I have written pages of potential titles, unlike Boris (Cvjetanović, A/N) who does it with ease and simplicity. I’m often jealous cause he does it better than me. That is roughly the difference between us two as photographers. How we come up with our titles. I’m always in some agony, thinking it through, restless andunderslept. I’m not talking about some serious insomnia issues but…I can’t fall asleep so I think about it. And Boris makes it look so easy and simple.
A. O.: Is there a difference in how you created the series Pie in the Sky and the series Where We Live [Gdje mi živimo]?
M. E.: In a way, all my series are Where We Live, because of a simple reason that I always shoot where I live and, actually, I cannot shoot were I’m not residing. You simply have to be there while you’re shooting. So, in this sense, this series is sort of self-ironic and, at the same time, it is a part of my continuous work within my surrounding. I have never planned a trip to somewhere where I had to shoot. You know, like you go somewhere and shoot something in particular and that is supposed to be some kind of a ‘project’ after which you put away your camera. I always shoot where I live, continuously, and then I stuff the photos into some folders, and there’s chaos arising from all the material. You can find all sorts of photos in the folders; there are photos of my cat, of what I cooked and all sorts of memorabilia…You know how it goes…And then, I simply create my collections out of that material.
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* The interview was conducted in Klovićevi Dvori Gallery, on 15 September 2015, during the exhibition This is (not) my world.
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