Klavdij Sluban - Nekje Drugje Tukaj / Elsewhere Here - 2024

Born in Paris to Slovenian parents, Sluban spent his childhood in Livold, near Kočevje, before returning to Paris where, after studying Anglo-American literature, he taught himself analog black and white photography. This remains his unique way of creating images to this day. He embarked on his independent photography path in 1992 with a series of portraits of Slovenian poets. After witnessing the Balkan Wars and consciously deciding to work as an artist rather than a documentary photographer, photography became his way of life, combining the two poles of his Slovenian-French and nomadic identity.His work ranges from the confined spaces of juvenile prisons in France, Eastern Europe, and Central and Latin America to the vast landscapes of his travels around the world, characterized by solitude, silence, and deep contemplation. He has been photographing young people in prison since 1995 and organizes photography workshops for young prisoners to share his passion with them and give them the opportunity to express themselves creatively in an often desperate environment.
The path from Elsewhere to Here could not have existed without the most important, extensive, and extreme journeys, which are the solid path towards the highly individual authorial language that makes Sluban's photography so refined and recognizable. Among these journeys, many coincide in time and place, each representing an entirely new experience, such as his long journeys on the Trans-Siberian, Trans-Mongolian, and Tibetan railways, which have already been presented in the East to East and Transsibériades series, as well as his stays in extreme conditions and remote, isolated places such as the Kerguelen Islands.The distance that interests him most and that he bridges is not the geographical one, nor the one that separates him from his subject, but the one that separates him from his camera. His way of photographing is impulsive and intuitive, often in motion, without any psychological study of the subject. The only sharpness that matters is that of feeling in symbiosis with the gaze that cuts the vision of the shot. Sluban's photographs are landscapes inhabited by all the senses, which is also reflected in the contemplative conclusion of the exhibition, where an image of the torii of a Shinto shrine on the island of Itsukushima is complemented by a soundscape that conveys a holistic experience of snow and Japan, two of Sluban's most poetic motifs.
Klavdij Sluban exhibits his holistic and ongoing photographic projects at major international festivals, museums, and galleries around the world, often complemented by excellent photography books and other publications. His works are part of national and institutional collections around the world, and he has been honored with numerous prestigious photography awards.