NMMA: How would you describe your recent project "Metamorphoses", which you are currently presenting at the solo exhibition of the same name in the Josip Račić Gallery?
Damir Širola: These are photo-collages or montages made with minimal use of digital tools. The first montages were conceived as visual experiments, a kind of visualization of the concept of generating new, surreal compositions from existing photographs. If these initial tests were successful, they are then edited further using digital tools. However, the visible merging of rough prints opened up the idea of rejecting Photoshop's deceptive and manipulative capabilities. We are inundated with images obtained with endless corrections that modern photo processing software offers in abundance and then are massively abused in order to deceive the viewer. I definitely wanted to avoid that and I think I succeeded.
NMMA: When did you take your first photo, what camera did you use and what did you capture?
Damir Širola: If you take into account my age and the fact that I started learning the basics of photography as a member of the Photo Section in elementary school, it is clear that I cannot mark my first enlargement...! At the same time, I remember that we had the opportunity to publish our successful photos on billboards that were all over the school's corridors. We used, at first, the Russian Ljubitelj 2, and then the Czech Flexaret, at least a few of us who still had access to a small studio and photo labs.
NMMA: Where did the love for photography come from?
Damir Širola: My family did not have a camera, but my father developed a fondness for fine machines in my brother and me. I remember very well that I was fascinated by the camera as a technical device, fortunately only in those elementary school days and maybe a couple of years after that. Quite quickly, this "mechanical" fascination became irrelevant and insight into photography magazines became dominant.
NMMA: With whom / where did you learn / about photographic procedures and techniques?
Damir Širola: There was never any direct learning in the form of lessons. Instead, I learned by immersing myself in the yearbooks of Stern magazine, which could be bought in Zagreb. I poured over them until the bindings fell apart. The countless photographs published in these yearbooks ignited my passion for capturing images. I believe that these annuals, along with monographs by important artists, constitute the cornerstone of contemporary photography as an artistic practice.
Then I stumbled upon the exhibition of photographs by Ivan Posavec in the Technical Museum and was completely amazed. Back then, in the mid-seventies, such an exhibition was, in my eyes, a giant step forward from domestic, then Yugoslav production.
NMMA: Is there a theme/motif that never ceases to inspire you and that runs through your entire photographic oeuvre?
Damir Širola: The constant that I consider one of the highlights of photography is the portrait. There are few situations that are as ethereal as the moment of deciding to take a portrait. There is an abundanceof captured portraits, yet very few achieve a true amalgamation of the subject and the photographer.
NMMA: Which of the world-renowned photographers do you particularly admire?
Damir Širola: There are many names that have permanently marked the photographic medium, it is difficult to single out individuals. However, I would certainly start with Jacques Henri Lartigue, then the inevitable Henri Cartier-Bresson, there are also Richard Avedon and Diane Arbus as exceptional portraitists and Edward Weston as a meticulous detailer and aesthete. It is impossible to summarize almost two centuries in a couple of names, so I will mention just one more: Martin Parr, my favourite narrator of modern society today.
NMMA: Analogue or digital photography? Black and white or in colour?
Damir Širola: If possible, analogue, if it makes sense black and white.
NMMA: Photography then and today?
Damir Širola: Modern media neglects the power of photography, the sheer volume and fleeting presence of photos diminish their significance. The dominance of weekly and monthly printed magazines is a relic of the past. he rapid pace at which we record world events leaves no time to cultivate the power of photography.
NMMA: Apart from basic criteria, what do you think makes a great photo?
Damir Širola: There are many genre divisions within photography, making it impossible to establish a single set of criteria for excellence. In life photography it is immediacy and social criticism, in portraiture, it is the moment of connection between the subject and the photographer, in landscape, it is purely artistic criteria, etc.
However, I would argue that photography is the art of capturing a fraction of a second, so if that part of the photography's genome is ultimately visible, then the photograph has succeeded.
NMMA: Whose portrait would you like to shoot?
Damir Širola: For years I have been putting off shooting a duo that helped me a lot in understanding photography, which is the MO group. Vesović and Posavec are great photographers, and taking their portrait is like inviting a famous chef to lunch. But that time will come, soon...
Interviewed by: Lana Šetka © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
From the exhibition "Metamorphoses" by Damir Širola in the Josip Račić Gallery and a photo portrait of the artist (detail) / Photo: Goran Vranić © National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb