– Bogdan Ogrizović’s Library and Reading Room, Zagreb, 2024
On Assignment
When we read the word “assignment,” we most often think of a duty: something that must be carried out in order to achieve a goal. Yet looking at the selection of photographs by Anto Magzan on display at the Bogdan Ogrizović Library, it is clear that the photographer approached his “assignments” with passion and creativity rather than obligation.
The photojournalist’s calling often led him far from his usual artistic preoccupations and his recognizable black-and-white series of strong contrasts. From politics, activism, and international and local celebrities, to the glamour and grit of street photography — Magzan has been a chronicler of our streets for two decades.
Although the photographs on display are vivid and full of colour, reflecting the visible influence of years working in print media, one frequently notices flashes of artistic inventiveness that Magzan deploys to give these everyday “assignments” an added dimension. The result is a harmonious blend of press and fine art photography. We encounter portraits of artists rendered in double exposure, energetic musicians, and the heat of romantic and political passion. The one thing all the photographs have in common is people. Magzan’s affection for the human face is unmistakable, and he has confirmed it himself on more than one occasion: “In people I find an inexhaustible subject that always offers something new. I believe there is no more complex sight than the human face. Sometimes an entire life is written on it, and sometimes it is so marked by everything happening around it that a face reflects more than any other subject.”
Visitors to the exhibition will encounter the photographs in their natural environment, almost on the street itself, merging with the reflections of vivid Zagreb passers-by in the library’s shopfront window. It will be difficult to tell where the photograph ends and life begins — or whether any boundary between the two exists at all.
– From the foreword by Ana Hadžić
