Gazela youngsters

So called “Cardboard City” was a slum settlement located under Gazela bridge in Belgrade. First Roma families moved in over twenty years ago, and by the 2007, almost a thousand people were living in houses made of cardboard, plywood, metal and plastic sheets. In the past few years, local government had a few unsuccessful attempts to relocate the settlement. Finally, on 31. August 2009, all families were moved to other parts of Belgrade and Serbia, and entire area flattened by bulldozers. (see my video clip)

This short series is about young people who were born and raised under Gazela bridge. My motivation was to show that all those things we, as complete strangers take as an extreme about Roma – garbage, dirty clothes, poorly built houses and so on – is in fact just a cover. A cliché trap. (example here) But if we choose to go further inside, we will see a real community, a real life. I’ve spent some time with those young people and I came to admire some daily little things, like a boy repairing a bicycle, another boy with a curly blond haircut, or wearing fancy underwear. I have combined photos as diptychs, to try to provide some context.

All photographs were shot few days before the settlement was relocated. The series has just won “special jury award” at Press Photo Serbia 2010. Big thanks to Matt Lutton and Sanja Knežević, for helping me out.