Birth of a Ship
2007-2009
"It took three years to build all the parts for the hull in a small garage measuring just 6x3metres. During this period nobody was very optimistic about the project reaching completion. However, in December 2007, everything changed when the frame was finally assembled in an ugly (and very cold) hangar in the local yacht marina in Split, Croatia. At that point Nenad was hooked by the beauty of the boat ‘skeleton’.
Nenad could not resist spending hours crawling between the frames, together with his friend the boat builder and a growing number of visitors. The ugly hangar suddenly turned into place of worship, almost like a church, where people came to pay their respect and admiration to a young man who chose larch and iroko wood to work with instead of plastics. The pessimism disappeared and was immediately replaced with a sense of excitement, fervour and anticipation.
It took Nenad one year to photograph the weekly progress of the boat building until it was finally turned upside down into its normal position and moved from the hangar to open space for completion. Although it will take two more years for her to be seaworthy, for Nenad she is complete. The last photo shows the point of the eternal beauty of the wooden boat before she is painted over and protected from the elements. He wanted to make the boat and the hangar come alive in the photos and convey the sense of intoxicating wood aroma and the spirituality of the boat, shed and the craftsmen involved."
*Silvershotz Folios 2009 Special Edition Nominations, UK & Australia
Nenad could not resist spending hours crawling between the frames, together with his friend the boat builder and a growing number of visitors. The ugly hangar suddenly turned into place of worship, almost like a church, where people came to pay their respect and admiration to a young man who chose larch and iroko wood to work with instead of plastics. The pessimism disappeared and was immediately replaced with a sense of excitement, fervour and anticipation.
It took Nenad one year to photograph the weekly progress of the boat building until it was finally turned upside down into its normal position and moved from the hangar to open space for completion. Although it will take two more years for her to be seaworthy, for Nenad she is complete. The last photo shows the point of the eternal beauty of the wooden boat before she is painted over and protected from the elements. He wanted to make the boat and the hangar come alive in the photos and convey the sense of intoxicating wood aroma and the spirituality of the boat, shed and the craftsmen involved."
*Silvershotz Folios 2009 Special Edition Nominations, UK & Australia