Childhood Under Siege in a Split Gallery
The exhibition 'Children in War, Sarajevo '92-'95' brings portraits of children who grew up amid shelling and shortages, opening Friday at Fotoklub Split.
The exhibition 'Children in War, Sarajevo '92-'95' brings portraits of children who grew up amid shelling and shortages, opening Friday at Fotoklub Split.
Fotoklub Split will host the exhibition "Children in War, Sarajevo '92-'95" by Milomir Kovačević Strašni, a legendary Sarajevo photographer, on Friday, August 7, 2026, at 8 PM. The display features a series of portraits of Sarajevo children whose upbringing was marked by the siege of the city. Despite the daily struggle with cold, hunger, sniper fire, and shelling, they constantly found ways to play and have fun.
Kovačević does not reduce them solely to the role of victims. His lens captures their directness, resourcefulness, and instinct to preserve at least a sliver of carefree joy even in the worst circumstances. The children mimicked the adult world, crafted toys from anything they found on the streets, hugged their stuffed animals, and were often unaware of the scale of danger surrounding them. That is precisely why these photographs function both as a valuable historical record and as a moving testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
Born in 1961 in Sarajevo, Kovačević encountered photography at the age of 17 at the University Photography Club CEDUS. From the late 1970s onward, he almost ritually captured the pulse of the city-its people, streets, cultural events, and social changes. The same camera accompanied him when the war broke out in the 1990s. He continued documenting daily life in besieged Sarajevo, thus writing one of the most compelling visual narratives of that siege.
Since 1995, he has been based in Paris, yet he remains devoted exclusively to analog photography. Years after the war, the "Children in War" cycle received an emotional epilogue through the project "Children of War, People of Peace." Kovačević managed to find some of his young models from the wartime shots and photographed them again, now as adults. The combination of those images-from the time of the siege and those taken more than three decades later-was first presented to the public in Sarajevo in 2025.
Kovačević's body of work has been honored with numerous significant accolades. Among them are the CCF Foundation Award (now HSBC), the French knighthood for his contribution to photography, and the April 6th Award of the City of Sarajevo.
The Split exhibition will be on view until August 28, 2026, during Fotoklub Split's opening hours. It is part of this association's regular annual program for 2026, funded by the Kultura Nova Foundation. The realization was also financially supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the Split-Dalmatia County, and the City of Split.
