Transience and beauty as old as the world and intact since the (ancient) history

The art of painting has forever illustrated the phenomenon of concealing the subject through the indubitable clarity of the illustrated motiff. Skyline prices of centuries of patronage, in combination with obscure lies hidden below coarse layers of paint, have hidden always the same and the unchanging primordial desire to stop passing of time – to the delight of both artist and observer alike. Throughout a porous multi-layered history in which the painter has forever concealed that which is depicted, the nude has held a special place, possibly even a principal one.

Allegoric motifs of depicted female bodies allow us to follow the (un)veiled subject of nudity, skilfully reasoned with the aesthetics of a captured moment of transitoriness in the ancient arena of dilemma as to beauty, virtue and truth. Throughout history the powerful elixir of body communication and statement dominated the facing of fear. Thus, from the beginning of time, transience has been conquered by the inviolability of beauty. Swathed in the illusion of the eternity of observation and the vitality of possession, Eros reveals himself to the observer through a figurative nude, and in particular – and with due respect to the exceptions – through magnificent, beautiful and youthful female bodies. Not the mother, the saint, sister, promiscuous woman… none of them is ever dressed enough to hide their lust after that which is eternal remains of the same.

Through photography, we encounter an entirely different perspective. In documenting that which is observed, as well as due to a more evident link between image and statement, the photographer’s skill and/or the value of that which is depicted, places reality on a pedestal of aesthetic exception. More direct in both its intention and result, by way of the nude photography takes risks and suspends the mythical aspect of the sense. The game of hide-and-seek played by sense and significance has been replaced by hidden observation of one and the other in one. The body remains where it has been ‘stopped’ by light on a medium which is further mercilessly distributed – or at least can be – anywhere. Left to the disgrace of reproduction, eminent photographs became subject to mass distribution conditioned by popular demand; as a result, risk as to status of the nude in photography has increased immensely, and its interpretation has been rendered more difficult. By acquiring the status of a coquettish genre, nude photography has drifted from theories based on a historic artistic expression characterised by a mysterious dichotomy between subject and motif.
Abadžić’s oeuvre reflects flirtation and investigation of the nude through photography. At the level of controlled hedonism he addresses the naked female form as a figure of beauty separated from allusions, though nonetheless observed with delight. In the accentuated suggestion of inviolability, the nudity remains fragile and totally devoid of lasciviousness. These women are like musical instruments, and the form and resonant clarity of aesthetic senses are co-ordinated. Perhaps unconsciously, but definitely not without reason, musical instruments often coexist in Abadžić’s nudes.

In general perfected and sophisticated, yet burdened with nostalgia, the photographer’s arrangement of beautiful things is astutely relieved through easy composition. Through an excellent classical aesthetic, Abadžić portrays the female form in the context of his fascination with time. Petrified transitoriness in the lens of perception, wistful observation in the still frame of change and classical form affirming its existence – all of these elements constitute Abadžić’s approach to photography as well as to his nudes.

– Nataša Šegota Lah, October 2008

 

“Stanko Abadžić’s photographs of nudes and figure studies have all the sensuality and sensitivity of someone who views his models with tenderness and more than a bit of love. His abstract and modernist images – often with a touch of surrealism – remind me of the Czech photographer František Drtikol. But the bulk of his photographs of models are in more everyday settings, bringing an intimacy to his work that is rare, and, at times, magical.”

– Alex Novak, Vintage Works, Ltd.