Jury
President of the jury
Katarina Duplančić
KATARINA DUPLANČIĆ (Split, Croatia; 1992)
Art historian, activist, translator.
She graduated in Art History and English Language and Literature in 2017 (University of Split) with the thesis “Construction of Orientalisms in the Representation of Women in the 20th and 21st Century Art”.
From 2017 to 2019, she ran exhibitions, translated and took photographs for the Croatian Association of Visual Artists, Split. Working on the “Building a Home Together” (ESF) project, she coordinated social and cultural events, and since 2021, she has been working as a project manager for Mavena and the Aktivist association, coordinating exhibitions, performance and educational activities in the Club Kocka gallery and library.
She has been volunteering in the Coalition of Youth Associations since 2009 (coalition vice- president, project and volunteer management, organization of concerts, workshops, exhibitions and educational activities, member of the Board of Directors).
Member of the City of Split Youth Council (2014 – 2017), member of the Board of Directors of the Youth Center Platform (2017 – 2019), member of the Culture Council of the City of Split (2023-).
Her contribution to Split's subversive culture and art is based on open communication with the public and transparent information channels between different parties (institutions, non- governmental organizations, local communities and artists).
Member of the Jury
Srđan Živulović
When Srdjan turns 13, his father Dragan gives him a most precious Christmas gift: his first camera. The photography enchants him for life. His camera is always somewhere at hand, ever since. He even walks the distance from Šmartno to Litija to have his films developed by Foto Zofi.
When choosing his profession, he first enrols in Secondary School for Electrical Engineering but soon realizes this was a mistake.
His mother Hermina advises him to choose a profession with a lot of contact with people.
The following school year he enrols in Secondary School for Photography and assisted by his mentor, Ms Vladka Kobal, he completes his education.
While attending theory classes, the practical part of the education takes place in the Delo Photo Department where a journalist photography becomes his passion for life.
His gets his first job as a photographer at Inštitut za varilstvo but spends the weekends at Delo.
Working for the “Cultural Caravan by Cankarjev dom”, he meets his wife Urška who stands by his side ever since and remains an endless source of love and inspiration.
In 1985, getting a job of a journalist photographer at Delo is a dream come true. Mentored by Joco Žnidaršič, he works there until 1992.
In 1989, he submits for the first time a photo to the Yugoslav ”Photography of the Year” Competition, organized by Tanjug Agency, and wins.
His photo with the title of “Working class fighting for bread” dates from the time when Yugoslavia as a federation starts falling apart. As an icon of the time, it keeps provoking emotions for years.
Žiga persistently requires and obtains from his employer, Delo, to send him to the hot zones like Kosovo, Iraq, Turkey, Romania or Israel.
On the last day of the Slovenian War for Independance, he becomes a member of the Reuters team.
Srdjan and his colleague Jože Suhadolnik, set up a photo agency. Bobo is created to support the newspaper Republika. With their diligent and planned activities, they create an impressive archive of photos related to the creation of the new state.
The Bobo photographers become the official photographers of the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, travelling with them around the globe.
Following the ongoing events, he is always in the front lines. He is also there during the first migrant wave in Slovenia.
In 2015, together with his Reuters colleagues, he wins the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for his photo of refugees on the dyke near Brežice.
Member of the jury
Zoran Marinović
Zoran Marinović is a documentary photographer and videographer. For the past fifteen years, he has been taking photos, doing coverage and documentaries from numerous countries as a permanent contributor to numerous world magazines (National Geographic, Das Stern, New York Times, Bloomberg USA, Paris Match) and television. The focus of his work and speciality is documenting conflicts, skirmishes, and complex social and humanitarian issues in the region, as well as the world.
He has had several independent and group exhibitions in galleries around the world, from New York to Paris, and his photo projects have won several prestigious international awards such as Int. Kontinent Awards, Magazin Professional Photographer, Lens Culture, and See Me / Art Takes NY in the past year. He is also the winner of the award for the best reportage at the Zagreb Film Festival and laureate of the Croatian Museum of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition “Democratic Republic of Conflict” about boy soldiers, gold miners and prisoners from Congo, was exhibited in the War Photo Limited gallery.
After the National Geographic exhibition “The Minute of Silence” opened in the Lauba Gallery, Zagreb in 2017, it was also shown in a dozen other Croatian cities.
At the Alberto Giacometti’s exhibition “Portraits of the present” in the Zagreb Art Pavilion, Zoran Marinović's video and photographs were installed as equipment, along with the works of the most famous sculptor of the 20th century.
He is also the author of feature-length documentaries Sierra Leone “Diamonds from Hell”, Laos “The Lost Kingdom”, Cuba “From Havana with Love”, purchased and screened as a part of the Croatian National Television’s documentary programme, and the film “Years of Love, Suffering and Hope” about the Croatian missionaries in Congo was screened in two parts on Croatian national television channel Nova TV.
Member of the Jury
Armin Durgut
Armin Durgut was born in 1995, in Zenica, where he finished primary and secondary school.
After enrolling at the University of Zenica, he dropped out of college, took up photography and moved to Sarajevo.
He attended the VII Agency masterclass, where Ron Haviv and Gary Knight were his mentors. Afterwards, he started working for the Dnevni Avaz daily and was their Photojournalist of the Year in 2018.
His photojournalism has been recognised beyond the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region of the former Yugoslavia, and his work has been published alongside reports in media outlets, newspapers, publications and magazines, such as: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Independent, Euronews, Bloomberg, The Guardian, ABC News, Deutsche Welle, Bild, Daily Mail, The Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Radio Free Europe, Le Figaro, El Pais, Stern, The Globe and Mail, Der Standard, Aljazeera English, The Times of India, Spiegel and etc.
With his recognisable visual style, Durgut primarily directs his photographer’s instinct towards documenting his immediate surroundings and promotes an unadulterated naturalism in his photojournalism. Capturing authentic scenes of human tragedy,
Durgut’s varied work as a photographer has placed him among the ranks of young photojournalists whose unmediated and authentic photographs oppose the widespread phenomenon of digitally altered images. With photography as his
medium of expression, Durgut acts as an objective observer who, almost always, records and transmits without “beautifying”.
In addition to working for news organisations, Durgut has worked as a freelance photographer on projects with local and international NGOs. The topics he is primarily dedicated to are marginalised groups, the Roma, disabled children and, in
the past few years, the migrant/refugee crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region.
He has also worked on various projects for the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Centre, preparing the Centre’s archives and an exhibition to mark 25 years since the Srebrenica genocide.
Armin is working as a freelance photojournalist for Pixsell agency (Croatia) and Associated Press (USA). He is a member of the Association of Applied Artists of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ULUPUBiH).
Member of the Jury
Alessio Paduano
Born and currently based in Naples, Italy. Thanks to a scholarship he studied one year in Paris at the “Université Paris VII – Denis Diderot“. In 2007 he started working as a contributor and a photographer for several Italian newspapers. In 2009 he graduated in Sociology at the “Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II” with a dissertation in journalism. In 2010 he started studying on the MA Photojournalism programme at the "Accademia di Belle Arti di Napoli" where he got his degree with honors.
Some of his work have been exhibited in the PAN-Palazzo Arti Napoli (Italy), Castel dell’ Ovo (Naples, Italy), Biennal of Bibbiena (Italy), Palm Spring Photo Festival (California), Tel Aviv Photo Fair (Israel), etc.
He is regularly publishing in the National and International magazines, including La Stampa, Internazionale, Time, Bloomberg, CNN, Newsweek, Stern, etc.
Among the recognitions obtained for his work are the POY (Picture of the Year), the Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award, the Krzysztofa Miller Prize, the Siena International Photo Awards and many others.