Stories? Ephemerals or eternals?

For Dubrovnik—or Grôd, as the people of Dubrovnik call it—I have been attached since my earliest childhood. From my first visit with my parents during school holidays, later as a student, and even today, some fifty years on, I continue to “go down” to the City, because from the perspective of someone from Sarajevo, one “goes down” to Dubrovnik.

Whether it was for a morning cappuccino at the City Café, a walk along the Stradun, a tour of the city walls, the famous sandwich at the Škola snack bar, or a swim at Sveti Jakov, Lokrum, or Porporela, I always found a good reason to “go down” to Dubrovnik. With the discovery of the camera and the world of photography, yet another important reason for an obligatory visit to Dubrovnik emerged - the Old Town. Surrounded by ancient walls, with its narrow alleyways and magnificent palaces, the Old Town also became a place of inexhaustible photographic inspiration.

Stepping through the gates of the Old Town, whether from Pile or from Ploče, we are not entering only a place, but also a time. History springs from every stone, and past and present intertwine in every alley and passageway. Here we see how the past lives in the present, and how the present leads us into the future. Here we can still hear the echoes of the iron-shod clogs of merchants, sailors, and artists who shaped the City over the centuries. And the City, standing as it does, remains in the eternal wheel of time, a silent witness to that rich past. Here, beneath the stone walls, we also confront our own transience—we are all but moments in relation to the eternity of this wondrous structure.

And how can one now, photographically, with an image without words, record our transience and the city’s eternity, that someone before and that someone later? One possible answer is condensed into two series of photographs: in the first series, the photographs were taken from the same locations (on the walls and throughout the Old Town), forty years apart. Each photograph from 1984 is accompanied by a photograph from the same spot in 2024. The changes visible in the photographs have not extinguished its essential beauty—the soul of the City remains unchanged.

The second series is articulated around individual photographs, each of which tells its own unique story about the City and its inhabitants. These two series are arranged into eight units that reveal how Dubrovnik, despite all the changes, has preserved its essence and its identity.

This collection of photographs is not merely a document of visual changes and a “before and after” exercise, but also a deeply personal emotional journey through time, a story about people and their everyday lives, a remembrance of the past. The text accompanying the photographs also springs from a chest of memories. While going through my father’s archive in 2023, I found his manuscript with the working title “Dubrovnik – a travelogue” from 1997. Unpublished until now, this text unexpectedly complements the photographic story of the City. Or perhaps the photographs merely illustrate the text? Decide for yourself, in any case… I hope that this catalogue, as a kind of testimony to a profound bond with the City, will also serve as a homage to my old man, who would surely have been happy to see his text together with my photographs.

Pavle Kovač