Journalist Chris Broughton's conversation with photographer Paul Lowe / The Guardian (original title:

Child playing with ball next to tank trap: Paul Lowe's best photo

)


Translated by: Agron Shala / Telegrafi.com

By the time I arrived in Sarajevo in June 1992, I had already spent some time documenting the end of the Cold War, witnessing the Romanian revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

When rumors started circulating that something was going to happen in Bosnia, no one could believe it.

The country seemed integrated: war would mean that people would – literally – fight their neighbors.

Initially, many of us covering the siege of Sarajevo believed, perhaps naively, that telling the story—loud enough, well enough, and honestly enough—would lead to condemnation and intervention by the international community.

There was a sense of disbelief that this could happen in a European capital.

I don't believe that any of us thought that the blockade would take place three years later.

During those years I made about ten visits.

In my first two weeks I concentrated on the siege itself: the victims, the patients in the hospital, the bodies in the morgue.

Later I became preoccupied with what happened to ordinary, educated, cultured people when they were subjected to medieval conditions caused by siege.

Sarajevans had few weapons in their hands, while food, water and electricity were often lacking, but they were extremely adaptable and tried to live as normally as they could.

They didn't give up the things they wanted to do, such as meeting friends downtown.

One of my photographs, taken during that year, showed the legs of a woman under a shroud in a morgue.

Her nails were painted, which seemed like a small act of resistance.

A vibrant and important cultural life began to emerge – and that was my focus.

I became friends with actors and artists, including a painter who alternated between working in his studio and fighting on the front lines.

He even made a sketch, a plan for a network of ditches in the form of

Piet Mondrian 's

Broadway Boogie Woogie .

Art and culture were seen as central to the defense of Sarajevo.

It was not just the physical city that was being defended;

it was the concept of the city – what it means to be a citizen and part of society.

For a little pleasure, people risked their lives.

And, this could be very difficult for children who, obviously, did not want to be locked inside.

During quieter periods, they were able to get outside more – I took a picture of the children swimming in the river during a truce.

But the river, like most of the city, was clearly visible to Serbian snipers.

One winter I witnessed a terrible scene: a group of five or six children were killed by a shell as they were passing in front of their houses.

This picture of a child with a ball was taken when I was outside, walking in the late afternoon, in the beautiful winter light.

I just happened to be on that stage, catching the ball as it was thrown in the air like it was any street in the world.

It's such a normal thing for a kid to do, but it was happening against the backdrop of the tank trap, a hint of ever-present danger.

Today I divide my time between the United Kingdom and Sarajevo.

My wife is from the city and I have friends here.

I recently held an exhibition in "Vijećnica" - the reconstructed - Sarajevo town hall that was destroyed in 1992. One photograph showed a string quartet playing - during the siege - in its ruins.

I hung the image where it was taken, with the building restored to its former glory.

***

Paul Lowe's CV

Year and place of birth:

London, 1963.

Education:

BA History, University of Cambridge.

Specialization in Documentary Photography, Ghent College of Higher Education.

PhD in Photography, University of the Arts London.

Influences:

Rembrandt, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand, Tony Ray Jones, Gilles Peress.

Success:

Documenting the extraordinary resilience of the citizens of Sarajevo as they defended the city – not only with front-line weapons, but also with culture and art.

They were inspirational – their courage, humor and incredible creativity.

Failure:

The fact that, despite our coverage of the atrocities that took place in Bosnia, the international community failed to intervene and it took the massacre of eight thousand men and children in Srebrenica to prompt intervention.

And, then, to see the same unfolding today in Ukraine.

Tips:

Let your subject breathe;

let the situation unfold.

And, think about how the aesthetic choices you make contribute – to the meaning of your photograph.

/Telegraph/