in croatia PT. 1

my family and i are spending 5 weeks in croatia at the moment, undertaking 4 or 5 projects with the intention of forming a 10 years after, (or there about), study - during this year that croatia has again been refused entry to the e.u. due to it's northern border dispute.

the first project is to investigate and document reconstruction along the old front-line, perhaps working across into bosnia as well, and in doing so i thought it best to start at the beginning.. with the devastation.

there are a string of ghost villages.. uninhabited due to landmines or simply because the damage was well beyond repair and also peripheral areas of villages and towns, particularly small towns, where damage has not been repaired due to funds...

more info later.. whilst actually photographing i would like to learn much more than i now know and research specific geographical areas before saying more.
as interesting as the project is it's also important for me to respect that the war is still very fresh.. neighbors were fighting neighbors in the region i am currently working.

while photographing as positively as possible i have already been made aware of just how close to the surface the friction is.. with one village in particular taking exception to my working there.

it's quickly become obvious that treading carefully and negotiating access & conversation very gently is the name of the game, even when photographing something as innocuous as a ruined building..

other developing projects are centering around;
-the youth culture movement and punk, bringing young people around the region back together
-tourism and neo-colonialism, which is a double edged sword i'll expand upon later
-the northern border dispute which is preventing entry to the e.u. and
-finally the poverty problems in serbia which continue to this day due to sanctions imposed after the war.