Marina Danic
Posted on January 29 2016
Marina Danić is a visual artist who lives and works between Chicago and Belgrade. She studied documentary and feature film at Cleveland State University, and after graduate from the department of Journalism in 2011
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Marina Danić is a visual artist who lives and works between Serbia and United States. She studied documentary and feature film at Cleveland State University, and after graduating from the department of Journalism in 2011 at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, she received her MFA in Creative Film and TV Production at the Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade. Marina Danić has exhibited her photographies in several countries such as Serbia, Argentina, Uruguay, Denmark, Great Britain, Austria, USA and Japan, and her work was published in numerous art magazines.
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Marina's images are records of life experiences recorded using an analog camera and a 35 mm support film, media which add to her shots a reflective feel and a look back into the past.
Marina's images are records of life experiences recorded using an analog camera and a 35 mm support film, media which add to her shots a reflective feel and a look back into the past.
One of the author’s interests which emerges from those pictures is the use a of natural light, a factor that adds further suggestions to her shots. The journal component is something that characterizes Danić’s entire work, a component from which her filmmaker mark emerges, and a component, above of all, through which she does an introspective work not far from the one done by the artists in the eighties, as an evidence, including also her use of the analog camera, of the link with the photography of the past.
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"Breakfast at Home" │ Buy it
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L.A.: Hello Marina, Can you tell us about your first approach to
photography?
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Marina Danic: I traveled a lot while in school, and my parents bought me a small Fujifilm 35 mm camera for the purpose of documenting where I've been.
But, I wasn’t familiar with photography as an art form at all at that time. Later in college, 35 mm had a huge comeback, and I would browse through photo blogs of other photographers just out of curiosity. What made the most impact on me was how nice it looked to document your whereabouts in this beautiful immediate way. Then I went to an exchange program to study in the USA and found Pentax zx, which was a pretty big camera that my host-parents let me use. I remember the first trip with that camera was to Cedar Point and I accidently ordered black and white film, which I thought, didn’t go with the whol amusement park atmosphere. Later when I developed those photographs, I got grat feedback. To me that was like someone said - I agree with what you are trying to say here or - I understand your point of view.
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L.A.: Who were some of the first photographers that inspired you?
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Marina Danic: I found out about big names in photography very late in college, but mostly I would be drawn to one photograph, and then research more about the author. Anyone who takes an effort to document his/her life through photography has my respect. I remember a friend once said to me that my work was ok, but it wasn’t Le photographie, and that got to me because I believe there is no such thing as the photograph of all photographs or one style that’s above others. Now, that I communicate more with other photographers I have found some gems mostly on flickr, blogs, and they all have something in common with my work, but are totally different at the same time. I also admire
cinematographers and directors of photography and always screenshot scenes from movies as an inspiration.
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"Looking Inside" │ Buy it
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"Dam on a River Tamish"
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L.A.: You shoot your pieces only on 35 mm film, what you think gives this
kind of support on your images?
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Marina Danic: I recently bought Sony Nex camera and I’m shocked how
uncomfortable it is for me to work with it. Probably because I always worked
only with film, with grain, with colors and light that are specific to film. Being on
trend is not important to me and I still believe photography is about the content,
the story, the moment. I like finding the extraordinary in seemingly ordinary and closing my eye and hope for the best. Also, each analog camera has its own feel, types of film as well. I let them surprise me withouth worrying to much
about their performance, but rather what’s in front of the lens. I am drawn to find something beautiful and interesting in a shot and rarely stage anything. Its no bother for me to look further or wait for when that action moment comes. Also what I love about film developing is that I have a certain opinion of a place and what happened there and then seeing it in photograph, it’s a completely different thing . It becomes something else, like it stages itself.
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L.A.: Can you take one of your works from those presents at LoosenArt Gallery and express a personal comment? something about meanings, concepts or memories inspired by that particular image..
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"New Years Eve"
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Marina Danic: It would have to be the New Years Eve shot in Las Vegas. I was doing this type of visual diary for winter break and somehow after traveling through California I ended up with some friends in Las Vegas. The desert wind
was blowing through the strip that we couldn't handle how cold it was. I spotted a huge glass doors right on the main square and somehow managed to pass security with two friends. This later turned out to be The Cosmopolitan hotel,
and it was their opening night. We ended up on a glass terrace with the warm pool, lots of very well dressed people and Coldplay was playing live. It was surreal especially because we got in for free. Later I remember ordering a latte
and trying to cross the strip somehow, without getting lost. I spotted this viaduct and wile crossing, took a shot for what I saw as the glamorous view of the strip and it turned out to be these cars passing in the darkness, almost lost, like I
was. I love that the flash is visible because it shows the presence of the author above these cars in the center of the strip.
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L.A.: Projects for the future?
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Marina Danic: I would like to see how will my photography change in the digital medium and will I be able to get closer with pixels and post production.
Production Design is also a visual field I see is close to photography and visual storytelling and maybe something to do if I get really lucky.
I was accepted to Duke University Center for Documentary Studies but couldn’t attend because of the cost, so I’m hoping to somehow get back to academia in the future. Meanwhile looking forward to multitasking and new collaborations.
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Marina Danic http://marinadanic.com
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