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Gregor Radonjič
Gregor Radonjič is a non-professional photographer and professor based in Maribor (Slovenia). As a self-taught photographer, he started to take photographs in the early 1990s. So far, his biography includes more than 30 solo exhibitions, over 60 group exhibitions abroad and in Slovenia, two photobooks and several multimedia performances. He was selected twice in the programme of the Slovenian Month of the Photography Photonic Moments and the Festival of Photography Maribor, and twice in the gallery selection for the Art Photo Budapest. He has been awarded or has been a finalist in many national and international competitions in last two and a half decades. His main creative interest is visual exploration of landscapes and the quest of their character, sometimes hidden behind the usual physical experience of spaces. Within landscape photography, he is particularly interested in photographing trees.
Alexandra Wesche
I am an amateur photographer from Germany who is into landscapes and stories. I like to discover both on my daily walks through the woods with my sighthounds and on occasional vacations.
One can say many things about social networks and the majority of them would likely not be positive. However, sometimes one of those rare moments happen, when we meet someone online, with whom we instantly share a connection. In this case, it happened on Instagram and with fellow tree enthusiast and creative photographer of metaphorical and metaphysical spaces: Gregor Radonjic.
Originally I was just interested in purchasing Gregor's photo book 'Drevesa' (Trees) because I enjoyed his work and it's also my favourite topic. This first contact has since turned into an enjoyable email conversation on photography, books and art in general, from which some topics have been taken up in my interview with Gregor.
9 From the series Trees
Alexandra: Can you explain a bit about your background? When, how and why did you start to practice photography?
Gregor: I started relatively late after I graduated from university. I was very much into music before I took on photography. But at some point, I started to observe certain interesting photogenic details on streets and outside urban areas and wanted to capture them. That was at the end of the 80s and it all began very simultaneously. I started completely analogue and I still have an equipped darkroom at my home. Soon after I took on photography, I joined the local photo club. That was long before the Internet and I learned a lot from experienced members. But the most important of all, I’ve practised for hours and hours, days and days in my darkroom. At that time, I used colour slide films a lot as well. I’m so grateful that I worked long enough with analogue techniques. That still helps me a lot with my digital approaches. When in front of the computer today, I’m thinking very similarly as I was thinking in my darkroom in a sense that I mostly use those manipulations that I’ve already used manually in the darkroom, except for some necessary colour interventions, of course.