Photos by Nenad Šaljić

Photos by Goran Vranić

 

Fabric Hardcover Folder, 23x30x3 cm
18 Loose Color Photographs 90×30 cm (146 Pages)
Publisher: Orada GmbH Bern, Switzerland
Limited Edition of 100 copies
ISBN 978-3-033-07763-8

Price: 90.00€ (shipping included)

15.05-16.06.2020

KRANJČAR GALLERY
Kaptol 26, Zagreb, Croatia

Published in conjunction with the exhibition:
VOID: NENAD ŠALJIĆ
March 14–30, 2019

KRANJČAR GALLERY
Kaptol 26, Zagreb, Croatia

Book Presentation & Exhibition Opening:
Thursday, March 14, 2019 at 7:00 PM

VOID: NENAD ŠALJIĆ
Two-volume Box Set, 272 pages, 23 x 31 x 4 cm
English/Croatian, Hardcover
Vol 1: 152 pages, 59 B&W Tritone Photographs
Vol 2: 120 pages, 47 B&W Tritone Photographs
Publisher: ORADA GmbH, Bern, Switzerland
Limited Edition of 200 copies
ISBN 978-3-033-07152-0

Price: 135.00€ (shipping included)

PARIS, FRANCE

PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE PARIS (PX3) 2017

Bronze Award – Book/Monograph “BIRTH OF A SHIP”

Visit: https://px3.fr

Press Inquiries: Press@px3.fr

Buchvernissage
Sonntag, 21. Mai 2017, 11 Uhr

Die Ausstellung dauert bis zum 28. Mai 2017
Öffnungszeiten: Di-Fr 14h – 18h30, Sa 11h – 14h

GALERIE RIGASSI BY SOON
Münstergasse 62, 3011 Bern
Tel. 079 311 77 88; rigassi@bluewin.ch

SOLO EXHIBITION:
BIRTH OF A SHIP / RAĐANJE BRODA
Opening on New Year’s Day 2017 at 00:00
Photo Gallery Split
Marmontova 5, Split, Croatia
31 December 2016 – 25 January 2017

BOOK PRESENTATION:
10 January 2017 at 20:00
Photo Gallery Split
Marmontova 5, Split, Croatia

Ladies and gentlemen, friends, enemies and fellow travellers through time and space, we are gathered here this evening to celebrate the birth of a boat while the rest of the world celebrates the birth of a carpenter’s son from the Middle East about 2017 years ago and the start of a new year in Christendom.

Neno has provided a stunning pictorial support to a story I wrote a couple of years ago about the death of a boat, strange but true. The path of Neno to reach this point is truly inspirational.

A gifted economist, able to advise people on how to avoid taxes and create off-shore accounts, Neno had the idea of changing his life-style. He has done so.

He has taken pictures of people in caves.

He decided to go for something much bigger; his decision to travel to Switzerland and take pictures of large pieces of chocolate was an idea which could only have been inspired by a higher power.

Unfortunately, Toblerone was unable to provide a piece of chocolate big enough for his purposes so he told them to fuck off and took a few pictures of the Matterhorn instead. He couldn’t afford a hotel room, being on a small budget, so had to stay up all night, in the freezing cold, with his camera put on a long aperture in case he missed something, such as the mountain moving to Tibet.

This resulted in him winning an international prize from the National Geographic magazine, for those of you don’t know this publication, it’s a bit like Playboy but without the naughty bits. The picture has also been published on the website of the well-respected, xenophobic, ultra-right wing, pro-Brexit British tabloid, the Daily Mirror. I think I made a comment about it, possibly the only one to get posted online.

Inspiration doesn’t come easily to Neno, I know… he’s a lousy cook. Having read a story about Vikings, he decided to do a photo composition of antique Viking helmets in Split. He couldn’t find any. However he has a friend who wanted to build a boat.

This friend, Gugo, had only just started on an extremely expensive project that would take him a little more than twelve years. Being a relatively old man when he started, his project turned into a race between the boat being built and his death. Luckily for all concerned, death lost this race.

However, while demonically taking thousands and thousands of pictures during the process of observing the boat being built and, at the same time trying to ignore the chorus of voices stating that “it will never float, you have to turn it around, it’s upside down!”, Neno noticed that his Viking helmet project was not quite dead in the water, unlike the boat. His eagle eye and trained photographer’s vision observed that if a picture was taken from a certain angle, the boat would, indeed look like a huge Viking helmet! His sanity was saved, and a bare patch on my living room wall was covered. It now hosts a huge picture of a Viking helmet signed by Neno. Such are the vagaries of life. The picture is also included in the book illustrating my story and is the star of the poster promoting this event, though why a picture of a Viking helmet has anything to do with the birth of a ship is anyone’s guess. But, perhaps that’s only me being a little stupid.

This exhibition, stars pictures of the boat in all it’s pure naked beauty. The story isn’t bad either if you get the book. Like his Swiss chocolate project, resulting in award winning pictures of the Matterhorn, this exhibition showcases Neno’s ability to change the most ordinary object into a thing of beauty. I can’t wait until he starts photographing ladies well-rounded bottoms.

With these few words, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, may it be better than the last…. Enjoy the exhibition and leave some booze for me…… Neno, your turn…. Thank you.

____________

Guys, I was at the opening five minutes after midnight. Everybody that knows me know how much I love photography and know about my utmost respect for the photographers. I know many of them, and have cooperated with dozens. However, I’ve never experienced something so fascinating. Absolute poetry!! You freeze and go mute, you try to talk to the author, introduce yourself, and stutter some compliments that disappear in their banality among the pure beauty of his work. I’m looking forward to Monday so I can visit again in peace. I’ll take a break on Tuesday, but on Wednesday I’ll have to visit again. I genuinely recommend to everybody who’s going to be in town in the next twenty days to visit and enjoy 20 minutes in front of the essence of beauty.
Maybe I’m exaggerating, but I’m astonished.

Ljudi, bio ja na otvorenju u ponoć i pet. Svi koji me znaju, znaju i to da obožavam fotografiju i beskrajno cijenim fotografe. Mnoge i poznajem, s desecima sam surađivao. Ali nešto ovoliko fascinantno još nisam doživio. Apsolutno čista poezija!!! Ono – smrzneš se i zanijemiš, obratiš se autoru, predstaviš se i počneš zamuckivati komplimente koji istog trena krenu odzvanjati banalnošću među svim tim strofama čiste ljepote. Jedva čekam ponedjeljak, da to sve još jednom pogledam bez gužve. U utorak ću si uzeti pauzu, pa u srijedu nanovo. Svima koji su u Splitu sljedećih dvadesetak dana, najtoplijje preporučujem dvadesetak minuta osmjehivanja pred esencijom ljepote.
Vjerojatno pretjerujem, ali ponijelo me.

By Renato Baretić, January 1, 2017 at 3:19am
Morsko prase, January 2, 2017

THE GREAT STORIES BY
25 TALENTED EUROPEAN PHOTOGRAPHERS:
NENAD SALJIC

 

IPA/Lucie Awards, Los Angeles, USA, 2016:

Third Place Award – Book “MATTERHORN: Portrait of a Mountain“ – Professional Nature Category

Visit: www.photoawards.com

 

PARIS, FRANCE

PRIX DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE PARIS (PX3)  2016

Silver Award Winner – Book “MATTERHORN: Portrait of a Mountain” – Professional Nature Category

Visit: https://px3.fr

Press Inquiries: Press@px3.fr

Don’t be misled by the prosaic title of this book. The Matterhorn is hardly “just a mountain.” Straddling the border between Switzerland and Italy, the Matterhorn may not be the world’s tallest pinnacle, but it’s arguably the most dramatic, its almost perfect pyramidal shape offering four distinct faces to the world. The British art critic John Ruskin called it “the most noble cliff in Europe.”

Nearly as awe-inspiring are the images that Croatian photographer Nenad Saljic has made of the Hornli Ridge, which connects the East and North faces of this fabled peak. A mountaineer in his youth, Saljic utilized time exposures to capture the sweeping movement of clouds and the streaking paths of stars in images of infinite variety and fascination. His photographs graphically invoke the Matterhorn’s mystique and majesty, as well as its menace—some 500 climbers have died trying to summit it—while seemingly evoking its past, present and future.
By Dean Brierly
Black & White Magazine, Issue 112, Dec 2015, USA

Similar to Japanese woodcut artist Katsushika Hokusai’s 36 views of Mount Fuji, here Croatian photographer Nenad Šaljić focuses on capturing the essence of the almost perfectly shaped pyramid peak that is the Matterhorn. Alongside his 43 black & white pictures, Šaljić includes historic moments related to the mountain.

By Anna Bonita Evans
Outdoor Photography (UK), 197, Out There
September 2015

NENAD.ŠALJIĆ.MATTERHORN:
Portrait of a Myth \ Der Mythos im Porträt

OPENING HOURS
October 29 to November 1, 2015
Thursday ,4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday, 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday | Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

VERNISSAGE
Thursday, October 29, 2015, 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

LOCATION
ABB Hall 550 
Ricarda-Huch-Strasse | 8050 Zürich
Booth G4

THERE are some images that can only be captured by someone with a personal, and borderline spiritual, understanding of a location. Swiss photographer Nenad Saljic’s new book contains perhaps one of the best recent examples of this. Within its pages there are a variety of ‘portraits’ of a single location: Switzerland’s famous (and at times infamous) Alpine mountain, the Matterhorn. Nenad trained as a mountaineer and caver in his youth, and it was these experiences that caused him to fall deeply in love with, as he terms it, ‘nature’s most ancient textures, forms and shapes’. In this volume we find a visual document of Nenad’s love affair with the Matterhorn. Each image shows the vast formation under a variety of weather conditions – mist, storm, sun and rain. A pure overwhelming beauty suffuses every image. Matterhorn is an incredible and perfect encapsulation of the sublime. ★★★★★

By Oliver Atwell
The latest and best books from the world of photography
July 18, 2015

Nenad Šaljić
MATTERHORN
Portrait of a Mountain \ Porträt eines Berges

ISBN 978-3-033-05067-9
English\German
Hardcover\30×30 cm\120 pages
43 Black & White Duotone Photographs
Publisher: Orada & Galerie Rigassi Bern, Switzerland
Book Release Date: 25 June 2015
Price: 96.00 CHF
(65.00£\92.00€\102.00$)

BUY NOW

Published in conjunction with the exhibition:
NENAD ŠALJIĆ.MATTERHORN:
Portrait of a Myth \ Der Mythos im Porträt

25 June – 8 August 2015
CH-3011 Bern, Münstergasse 62
T +41 (0) 31 311 69 64
info@galerierigassi.ch

10 July – 10 October 2015
CH-3920 Zermatt, Riedweg 156
T +41 (0) 27 968 12 12
info@cervo.ch

Sieben Künstler – ein Berg \ Seven Artists – One Mountain
KUNSTRÄUME ZERMATT
10 July – 30 November 2015
CH-3920 Zermatt, Hofmattstrasse 4
T +41 (0) 27 967 71 77
shop@heinzjulen.com

 

PDN Photo Annual, New York, 2015:

MATTERHORN: Portrait of a Mountain
Winner – Personal Category

… In order to understand the significance of the award-wining series of works by Nenad Saljic, in both an international as well as local context, we need to delve deeper into the history of photography itself, and landscape photography in particular, as its own autonomous genre. Landscape photography, which is at the center of the author’s work, stands out among other genres in photography precisely because it does not capture a moment in time or the fleeting nature of objects, which is characteristic of the medium as a whole, particularly for journalistic or life photography. Landscape photography, in complete contrast to those genres, doesn’t capture a moment, but rather the persistence and stability of a geological timeframe, which routinely transcends time for both the observer, and the photographer. It is by virtue of their convergence that many questions arise, which also transcend the common themes of photography, and introduce wholly new concepts for perception and analysis, the psychological and metaphysical concepts in defining time, and the concept of lasting and temporality. This is also true of the geocosmic time present in the photographs of Nenad Saljic, which routinely showcases not only stars or massive rock formations, but also temporal weather conditions.

Landscapes such as this, once photographed, have an almost therapeutic effect upon the observer. For those of us who’ve not physically scaled mountains, particularly not at night, these photographs offer the opportunity of photographically facilitated meditation in nature, at a somewhat lesser, and thus less intimidating, scale, as well as an experience devoid of the physical and climatic hardships that the author might have encountered.

… Namely, landscape photography doesn’t portray just the landscape itself; rather, as can be seen in Saljic’s work, it also includes the complex relationship between author and object. The author faces objects of remarkable longevity, as would an observer, which allows him to reevaluate his own importance and temporality. The impact of such emotions is often visible on the photographs themselves, and we encounter melancholic and dour, calming, terrifying or even enticing landscapes. These landscapes clearly appear as subjects in their momentary interaction with the photographer, i.e. the observer. The author faces them alone, in evident silence, often at night… seemingly without fear.

… Judging from the photographs of Nenad Saljic, who follows the ways of past photographers by going on expeditions to far and foreign mountain spaces, in which he mostly works at night, in a world of ecocataclysm, the relationship between man and landscape remains, in a way, an unchangeable form of communication, a place of contemplation and communication. The poetic and mystical, far and frightening, changing and simultaneously lasting mountain massifs in these photographs communicate precisely that warning which they communicated several hundred years ago, of the transient nature of man, while simultaneously being critical of civilization itself, which, while not portrayed in the photographs themselves, becomes a background motif for them.

Ana Peraica, Ph. D.
Fotografija, No 60-61, 2014, Ljubljana, Slovenia

New York Photo Festival – The PhotoWorld 2014 exhibition opening reception will take place at The POWERHOUSE Arena Friday, September 26, from 6-8 pm, on the opening day of the world famous Dumbo Arts Festival (@DUMBOArtsFest, #DAF14). The exhibition will be in view through November 10.

HANGART Group Exhibition

July 31 – 13 September, 2014
Marina Zadar
Ivana Meštrovića 2
Zadar, Croatia

Exhibited Artists:
Damir Babić, Petar Barišić, Boris Berc, Neven Bilić, Fedor Fischer, Ivona Jurić, Ivan Kovač, Darija Dolanski Majdak, Marin Marinič, Mak Melcher, Mladen Radolović Mrlja, Dalibor Stošić, Nenad Šaljić, Stjepan Šandrk, Robert Šimrak, Bojan Šumonja, Goran Tomljenović, Vladimir Dodig Trokut, Matko Vekić, Igor Zirojević.
 

Upcoming Exhibition: Aperture Summer Open 2014

On View: July 17–August 14, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 17, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Aperture Gallery and Bookstore
547 West 27th Street
New York, NY

Selected by Chris Boot, Aperture’s Executive Director. His reflections about the current state of photography: Aperture blog

The Prix de la Photographie Paris (Px3), 2014:

A Portrait of the Matterhorn has been awarded the first prize in nature category.

Photographer Nenad Saljic’s book Birth of a Ship begins like a traditional fairy-tale; a piece of poetic prose sets the scene. We learn that in a feat that feels akin to a production of Noah’s Ark, an idea of a building a boat was formed and the bones of it began to take shape soon after. Documenting the developing construction, the images that form Birth of a Ship are interweaved with geometric curved line across white pages, with poetry. This poetry is written by Miki Bratanic; these nautical nuances placed between the pages lend further spirit to the photographs.

It is a deviation from the work we are used to associating with Nenad; stunning landscapes of peaked cliffs, caves and expansive skies; but his interest in texture and natural fibre is nonetheless prevalent within these images. Namely, his ability to create high-contrast black and white photographs with high definition and detail has developed to become a signature aesthetic. The grain of the material; the wood, the metal surrounding hanger – are felt through this keenly represented texture.

But this is a book far from a project one would normally label documentary; I am hesitant to describe the images even as still lives; this is too immobile a term. The book feels as melodic as much as it is visual, the emanated waves not seen in watery form but within the lines weaving through the pages; a repeated motif of rising and falling mark-making. As I proceed through the pages it is the viewer that brings life to the shell of the ship.

The very visual and sensual curves are as intimidating as they are impressive; as the symmetrical ribs reach around the space they are in I am reminded of a breath, but also an enclosure; a trap of sorts. The vessel of a ship is powerful; but inherently vulnerable to its surroundings. Function, too, is thwarted; what use is this ship in its protective hanger? Stuck in its womb, as it were, it is inanimate; non-functional. Nonetheless, we that fill in the unseen the gaps of workmanship and see it progress, following the physical clues of construction.

As it grows, our ship becomes akin to a body and I am able to detect the human attributes within the book’s narrative. A ship is built to sail; to explore, to transport. Alternating between periods of calm and turbulence, the ship can provide parallels metaphorically and philosophically that illustrate our own experience. I feel myself yearning to reach out into this ship, caring about it. I am left with a feeling of accomplishment and its visual architecture impresses upon me. Birth of a Ship represents something as soft and subtle as an idea, but the true significance lies in the fact this idea has made into something that exists; something very tangible and real. I only hope when the ship meets the water, it is a voyage that befits its dedicated craftsmanship and magnificence.

By the end of book, I feel both the promise of adventure and the effects of nostalgia; a combination that feels both new and encompassing. The last words come from the boat-builder Igor (Gugo) Ilic who neatly sums up the spirit of the builder, as well as the sailor: “Once you start, there is no going back.”

Eighteen39 by Dawn Schuck
In Photo Features

IPA International Photography Awards, Los Angeles, USA, 2013:
“Birth of a Ship” winner in:
– Book Fine Art Professional Category
– Book Self Published Professional Category

“A beautiful new season collection from Saxony with textural seasonal prints inspired by award winning photographer Nenad Saljic’s series Petrified, revealing the hidden world in the caves of Croatia.”

 

Nenad Saljic
27 June – 15 July 2013
Photo Gallery Split
Marmontova 5, Split, Croatia

The exhibition is part of official celebration of Croatia’s accession to European Union, and is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture.

 

I have a long affiliation and appreciation of this statuesque mountain but this image, indeed the whole series (A Portrait of the Matterhorn) by Nenad Saljic, is masterful in showing this beautiful colossus with its own personality and moods. The photographs are exquisitely shot and remind one of the works of the American photographer Ansel Adams, the father of black and white environmental photography.

Honorary Judge Francesca Sears on her favorite images
2013 Sony World Photography Awards

Photodays Rovinj 2013, Croatia:

First Prize Winner – Publications Category – Photobook “Birth of a Ship”

“Birth of a Ship” winner in Personal Category

Winning images will be published in the June 2013 Photo Annual issue of PDN.

Eight images from the portfolio “A Portrait of the Matterhorn” have been awarded 1st Prize in Professional Landscape Category at 2013 Sony World Photography Awards in London.

The work of all the shortlisted photographers will be exhibited at Somerset House, London, from 26 April – 12 May as part of the 2013 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition.

 

Saxony Australia, February – May, 2013: The Galeries, Sydney World Square, Sydney Chatswood Chase, Chatswood Doncaster Chadstone QV, Melbourne

The photograph ‘Matterhorn 23.07.2012—18:46:35‘ was selected as the backdrop for the catwalk at the Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall/Winter 2013/14 Collection Fashion Show on January 17, 2013, at the Grand Palais in Paris.

Louis Vuitton AW13 Collection @ Paris Fashion Week, 17th Jan 2013.

Louis Vuitton store opening in Wuhan, China 2013

Louis Vuitton store opening in Wuhan, China 2013

Second time winner of the National Geographic Photography Contest.

The image “Matterhorn: Night Clouds #3” has been awarded the First Prize in Places Category.

Foto8 Summershow 2012, Foto8 Gallery, London, July 6 – August 18, 2012

Judges: Gerry Badger, Phil Coomes, Alison Jackson, Simon Roberts and Ossian Ward

Griffin Museum of Photography, 18th Juried Exhibition, Winchester-Boston, USA, July 19 – Sept 2, 2012
Juror Paul Kopeikin

Houston Center for Photography, 30th Annual Juried Membership Exhibition, USA, July 13 – Aug 26, 2012
Juror Anne Tucker

Photography Open Salon Arles 2012 – “An Eye for an Ear”, Galerie Huit, Arles, France, Les Rencontres d’Arles Festival: July 2 – Sept 23, 2012

Secrets and Mysteries, Darkroom Gallery, Essex Jct., Vermont, USA, 5 – 29 July, 2012
Juror Catherine Edelman

Nenad Saljic is a Croatian artist who discovered his twin passions for photography and mountaineering early, while still in primary school. Looking at his impressive prints, it will not surprise you to know that he was almost expelled from school for spending too much time in the darkroom.

Saljic uses long exposures that condense time, creating records of the movement of the wind, water and trees, where light and shadow meet in a tremendous, blissful moment. Saljic writes: “Being mountaineer and caver from a very early age brought me to some magnificent destinations where human footsteps have rarely or never been before. The feeling is amazing and hardly explicable by words. I want my images to convey exactly that kind of transcendent experiences, to take the viewer into my deepest emotional journeys. I¹d like you to feel like traveling Jules Verne’s voyages when looking at my pictures; to make the impossible possible.”

By Rebecca Horne
Wall Street Journal Photo Editor
Lux Archive Blog

I first came across Nenad Saljic’s work when he won the Gold Award in B&W’s 2011 Singe Image Contest. His image ‘A Church Inside a Church #1, Drvenik Veliki, Coroatia, 2010’ (above) is a stunning image full of symbolism: a prominent silhouetted cross, the overhead sweeping heavens and a slightly elevated composition that suggests we have ascended ‘above’.

The starburst sets a mystical, evangelical overtone; the open gate invites us to pass through (over?) and enter this centred, meditative space. It’s universal, it’s bigger than us. And perhaps better.

Nenad Saljic produces images that seem concerned with overt spiritual messages and inspirations; his recent 2011 work such as ‘Walk the Line’ also connotes mysticism. There’s a force of nature captured so strongly its significance is reflected in its overt presence. Big fat thumbs up.

Eighteen39 by Dawn Schuck
In Features

Croatian Nenad Saljic fell in love with photography and the mountains in his early teens. Of course, life has a habit of getting in the way and in the course of some life events, he pretty much left his passions unpursued. Fortunately for Saljic (and the rest of us) he rediscovered his passion for photography and has graced us with some beautiful black and white photos. In 2009 and 2010 he produced a series called “Matterhorn”, which are, of course, shots of The Matterhorn in the Pennine Alps. The photo below, entitled “Evening Clouds”, comes from this series.

Few things can bring forth the image a grand conjuration than watching clouds borne from orographically influenced winds. I was treated to a few myself as a Weather Observer in the United States Air Force, although admittedly nothing to this scale. I’m reminded of the great eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I wonder if this is the last thing that most of the rest of Middle Earth will see before the shadow of death descends upon them. One almost gets the feeling of being a Hobbit watching from a hiding place as the conjuration of evil begins to really take hold.

The play on the tones is the part that sets the mood of this photograph. The dark foreground tones suggest a hiding place – we have our safe vantage point and as long as the mountain can’t see us we are safe. The moutain itself is mostly low-key in tone. Toward the bottom it is lighter and gets darker as you go up, which suggest that a transformation of sorts is taking place. Of course, the clouds are the stars of this photograph. The brilliant white stands in stark contrast to the rest of the photo, letting us that we are in for something. The beauty of the clouds belies both the violence that produced them and the violence that is sure to follow their conjuration. And when one looks at the fact that the peak of The Matterhorn is enveloped by the clouds, one can’t help but get the impression that they’re in the path of the full force of what’s to come.

Of course, these clouds are merely the result of updrafts over the surface of the mountian. Even though I can’t see the rest of the sky, I would safely assume that support for these clouds is almost non-existent at a few miles from the mountian itself. Of course, not many people outside the meteorological community (or those who live near the mountain) would necessarily know that.

Normally when we see photographs of the power of nature, it’s in the aftermath of whatever phenomenon took place. This photograph provides a rare glimpse at how powerful nature is, even on a small scale. What makes this photograph even more powerful is that it almost seems to contain that power, even though we know what’s coming toward us. The play on the tones of the photo suggests a doom scenario where Mother Nature is releasing her full power and the viewer, unfortunately, is about to be caught up in it.

Rick’s Picture Corner Blog