Our friend Chris Leslie is displaying his exhibition A Balkan Journey in

SOGO Art Gallery, Saltmarket Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
82-86 Saltmarket, Glasgow G1 5LY

https://sogoarts.com

14th Jan – 28th February 2022

Chris, a Scot, is a BAFTA Scotland (New Talent) Award Winning photographer and filmmaker. He began taking photographs whilst volunteering in the Former Yugoslavia in 1996. He then went on to work as a photographer, filmmaker and communications manager for an International NGO documenting stories across Africa and Eastern Europe.

A Balkan Journey is a Visual Arts project in the form of an exhibition and a book of photography and essays, alongside interactive international and local events. Chris Leslie takes us on a photographic journey through the towns and cities of post-conflict Former Yugoslavia in this extensive and previously unseen 24-year archive from the region.

This collection of work will showcase his earliest photographs from a war-ravaged Croatian town in 1996, through to the present-day Sarajevo of refugees and migrants trapped in limbo. 2020 marks a quarter of a century since the end of the conflict, but the region and Europe continues to struggle with conflicting ideologies. A Balkan Journey, presented as a Visual Arts project, will provide a crucial moment of reflection at this time, both for viewing public and for the artist at a pivotal moment in his life and career.

It will provide us with a penetrating insight into the human stories behind one of the most influential periods in modern European history. Working alongside writer John McDougall, the project will include an exhibition at SOGO Gallery in Glasgow, a book of the photographs and accompanying background and stories, seven public events across Scotland and Sarajevo, and a website and social media campaign. The book and website include  Bosnian / Croatian translations.