Belgrade Belongs To Me - Hardcover

Boogie

4.33

15 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1576874656 ISBN 13: 9781576874653

Publisher: powerHouse Books, 2008

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“At three o’clock sharp, the enemy must be crushed by your mighty charge, torn to pieces by your grenades and bayonets. The honor of Belgrade must be spotless. Soldiers, heroes, the Supreme Command has erased our names from its roll. Our regiment is sacrificed for our King and Fatherland. You don’t have to worry anymore about your lives that no longer exist. So forward, to glory! Long live the King! Long live Belgrade!”
—Major Dragutin Gavrilović, September 24, 1915

Born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia, Boogie began photographing rebellion and unrest during the civil war that ravaged his country during the 1990s. Growing up in a war-torn country defined Boogie’s style and attraction to the darker side of human existence. His archives reveal undeniable evidence of the evils that erode the urban space and unite humanity in the despair of impoverished lives. Belgrade Belongs to Me, his third powerHouse Book, shows the city from the inside as the former Yugoslavia began its rapid disintegration into war and the slow resurrection of a people who have fought for centuries for their survival.

Boogie does not spare the spectator any social taboos as he documents the daily struggles of the marginalized people whose lives he infiltrates completely, taking us deep into worlds traditionally closed to outsiders. Whether documenting neo-Nazis or gypsies, police or protesters, or the working class people of Belgrade, Boogie’s work reflects his respect for his subjects, defying the glamorized stereotypes of urban life and revealing the phantoms that haunt the modern metropolis.

“Living under Milošević was like living in a mental institution. It was apocalyptic. Pensions and salaries were three to five United States dollars. People, especially the old and retired, were literally starving. The streets were empty. There was a shortage of gasoline, so there were very few cars on the street. And then, in the middle of the night, you would see a police truck cruising slowly. There were protests against Milosevic every day. In the beginning they were peaceful, so I didn’t go. I don’t believe in peaceful, passive resistance. It’s either grab the gun and go to the woods or sit at home. But then they turned violent. The police were very brutal, beating protesters mercilessly. And that’s when I started to go out and shoot photographs. Milosevic wasn’t sure cops from Belgrade would be tough enough—they might not want to beat on their neighbors. So cops were brought from other parts of Serbia, huge cops with mustaches, in riot gear. I ran from them a few times. Scary.”
—Boogie

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From the Author:

Growing up in Belgrade in the 70s and 80s was great. I remember playing in the streets with my friends all day long without our parents watching over us. Crime rates were among the lowest in Europe, and there was no such thing as fear-mongering about pedophiles or maniacs roaming the streets. The sense of community was very strong and we all felt safe. Life was pretty simple.

But living there in the 1990s was completely different and surreal. The crash of the attempted economic reforms brought nationalist politicians to power in all of the former Yugoslav republics. Tensions were running high. Serbs hated Croats, Croats hated Serbs. Serbs hated Muslims, Muslims hated Serbs. On occasion Croats hated Muslims, and Muslims hated Croats back. I remember returning from military service through Zagreb, Croatia, and being afraid to speak with a Belgrade accent. We Serbs weren't welcome there. The wars in Yugoslavia started shortly after, in 1991, with a tiny conflict in Slovenia, followed by the war in Croatia, and then finally Bosnia. Serbia was never officially at war, but the Serbian people were--first through what was still the Yugoslav army trying to protect the borders, and later through paramilitary formations which were formed in Serbia by the extreme nationalists. People were coming back from the front lines half insane. The state media propaganda could be compared to the U.S. media campaigns before and during the 2003 attack on Iraq, the only difference being that they don't show dead bodies on TV here. In Serbia we saw them on the news every day.

Then in 1992, the U.N. imposed economic sanctions on Serbia. The world media portrayed us as monsters and rapists, so no one outside the country really cared what was happening to us. Sanctions never affect the leadership, and even work in their favor, as was the case with President Milosevic and his people, who were getting richer and richer running the black market. It is always the ordinary people who suffer. Old people and children were dying in the hospitals because of lack of medicine, we were buying gas in two-liter soda bottles on the street corners, and basic food staples were being smuggled in from neighboring countries.

In 1993 Serbia was hit by the biggest hyper-inflation the world has ever seen. People would get their salary or pension one day, and the next morning it would be worth NOTHING. I remember at one point, my mom's entire monthly pension bought us two pounds of onions. People were looking through garbage containers for scraps of food. Retired people were starving, and many of them committed suicide so they wouldn't die of hunger. It was common knowledge that suicide rates were through the roof, although the official numbers were never released.

About the Author:

Boogie was born in Serbia and emigrated to the United States in 1998. The author of It’s All Good and Boogie (powerHouse Books, 2006 and 2007), his work has appeared in Cube (Sartoria/Modena, 2003), as well as publications including Time, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Vibe, The Source, and others. His clients include Nike, Lee Jeans, Element Skateboards, and Shellac. Boogie lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

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