Affordable Sadness

Affordable Sadness, 2001-2016. Photo series: photographs, 125 cm x 104 cm.

The photographed subjects in this series range from chance encounters to the more challenging ones that required planning and even special permission – like in the case of the photo from Ghazala Gardens, where a terrorist attack took place in July 2005 killing almost 90 people. Most of the photographs in the series conceal specific stories, sometimes quite beyond their ordinary appearance, while others are based on subjects chosen purely because of their visual characteristics.

The series was created during the artist’s studies in a time when he abandons painting for photography. To some degree the series bears traces of this change of medium and the Čirkinagić’ quest for new visual language. This is noticeable in the way the artist constructs space in his photographs. Most of the motifs are without perspective, such as a wall or a shopping window. Even image elements that do contain a certain degree of perspective or depth are treated as abstractions, to such an extent that they give the impression of flat surfaces. This is one of the artistic aspects of the series that may be seen as a visual translation related to the artist’s transition from working on the surface of a canvas to working with the surface of the photographic lens.