Daily lives – the people of Sarajevo

At one of these lovely spontaneous days you can experience in Sarajevo, Damir from the ‘under siege punk band’ Protest, took me to the tattoo shop of his brother, Erva. Ötzi Tetoviracnica is a tattoo shop that might not catch your eye by simply passing it in the street. Graphic and tattoo artist Erva installed his studio in a small apartment in a street downtown Sarajevo near main street Marsala Tita. Yet all the necessities of a professional tattoo shop are installed: waiting room, bathroom, drawing desk, professional and hygienic tattoo room.

I found out about Sarajevo’s own street fashion brand Revolt Cloting when doing research on Instagram. I contacted them and was able to meet and talk with founder Miran. Graduated at the city’s Royal Academy of Arts as a graphic designer, Miran started to do some screen printing at his uncle’s print shop. Being part of a hip hop and skate subculture, he decided to print self made shirts early 2000. Back then, skate and basketball fashion from the US was hardly accessible in Sarajevo. Producing shirts for friends and himself at first, Miran decided to found Revolt Clothing in 2010. After some time he started selling his clothes online in Bosnia and abroad. Since July 2019 he has its own store Royal With Cheese. A must visit when in town and into street fashion and hip hop culture!

When lawyer Erna started Bizbook company in 2017, her aim was to do something for the (business) community. B2B tendering is a very time-consuming process in Bosnia. With Bizbook, a peer-to-peer network of Bosnian companies, making offers and requests for proposals became much more efficient. When we met, Erna’s company had 700 members and was managed by a team of 5 women. Bizbook already won 2 Awards and was Runner up in the 2019 Edita Start-up competition Bosnia Herzegovina. Erna Sošević is a perfect example of how people, in the background of poor economic and political conditions, are the trigger for a positive change by taking initiatives and peer-to-peer projects.

Being a vegan in a country with a meat culture is heavy. Opening your own, vegan restaurant in a metropolitan city overcrowded by cevapi restaurants, the national, minced beef meat dish, is having guts. And being ambitious! Sasha is a certified vegan chef and a true inspiration. He cooks delicious dishes in his slow food restaurant downtown Sarajevo. His Bosnian wine selection to accompany the plates is as tasty as the food he serves. His ecological footprint is exemplary, short chain getting his ingredients from the local market across his restaurant.

Protest is a punk band formed by students of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo’s underground music scene of the 90s. Damir was frontman for the punk band which continued playing concerts in shelters during the Sarajevo siege from 1992-1996. He still performs with Grupa Protest and remains active in the music scene as a songwriter and a DJ. His daughter inherited his musical genes and is a successful piano player already at young age.

I met Diana when photographing the metal band of her boyfriend on a gig night in Sarajevo back in 2017. She just returned from the USA where she worked as a teacher for several years. In 2019 we met again, back then she was working as a receptionist in a hotel downtown Sarajevo. Finding a job as a schoolteacher for kids was really hard. She still dreams of standing in front of a classroom in the future.

Ciglane is a real Soviet style suburb near the ’84 Sarajevo Winter Olympics ground. It is characterised by static apartment blocks that climb up a hill. In the neighborhoud you can find small shops, a café, a mosk and a market at the bottom of the buildings. Nebojsa is an optician who keeps shop in Ciglane. His family fled to France during the 90s siege of Sarajevo. After having a first professional experience in France, he returned to Ciglane, wanting to start his own business. However it would have been financially more interesting in France, he chose to run his optician shop in Sarajevo.