TENDER

In Political Fields “Tender” Interested in a closer examination of the economic term “tender,” which in the former Communist states has proven to be anything but tender for the miners and industrial workers who were once the heroes of Socialist labour, Belgrade photographer Djordje Odanovic has made a new collection of photographs of the blighted Serbian mining and smelting complex of Bor, which is, appropriately enough, on tender. His photographs explore the bleak reality of the lives of the workers of Bor and the uncertain and unpromising future they face during the transition to capitalism. By using the “double view” technique now popular in photography, he gives us a series of the workers’ portraits alongside “portraits” of the decaying and dilapidated complex, thus achieving a high level of empathy without veering into sentimentality. The ominous interior and exterior shots of the old, ruined buildings and equipment symbolize a decaying social system. By juxtaposing the human and the manmade the author gives the viewer not only a two-dimensional narrative but a complex labyrinth of historical references. The fact that the digital images are printed on RAG paper, format is 80x60 cm. Beograd DjordjeOdanovic 18. 2. 2019.