BIO & FRIENDS’ IMPRESSIONS About Boris Vargovic Fine Art Photography

BORIS VARGOVIC is one of Croatia's leading landscape art work artists with more than 35 years behind the camera lens. He has done professional photography since 1985. He has participated in over fifty Croatian and international photo exhibits until 1992. In 1985 he earned the status of the youngest photo amateur of first class in the Photo Society of former Yugoslavia.

He has exhibited his work independently over fifteen times. Over the last twenty years he has also done graphic designing and large format printing. Currently he lives in the small Croatian city of Koprivnica in the region called Podravina. After completing his education in photography he worked as a photo apprentice in Zagreb. In 1990 he started his own photo studio. After the end of the war in Croatia, in 1993 he founded a company that does commercial photography and graphic design. The priority of this company is still commercial, tourist and art photography, large format printing and lately, photo framing.

Boris’ art works have the familiar air and energy of a person uniquely connected to nature. Boris also easily finds motifs in nature, and moments of inspiration often missed by the average person, but easily recognized by a soulful person with an experienced eye behind the camera. He is an individual who finds nature as the perfect conversation partner and immensely enjoys exploring, spending time with and communicating with it. I have been Boris’ friend for many years and am amazed how time has flown by us. Luckily, with the eye of a professional and with the wideness of an artist, Boris has learned how to stop the moment in time. With his magic photography he has turned common and unobtrusive things into magnificent and fascinating items to behold. One has to stop to simply look and be silent and wonder…

M.S. / V.M.

Boris Vargovic Fine Art Photography - ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Photography is more than picture, however the inspiration behind photography is the trigger for the creativity and that is what causes the greatest joy of creating. I don’t know if I love photography. I am not even sure how to love it, but I am certain that the amount of joy behind the thing you see, behind the perceptions of your soul, and the moment halted by the camera in your own, unique way can mean infinitely more than something you could love. To our greatest joy, that is not the end of the story, because what follows can be very creative, too, especially when we talk about developing a photo art work, creating a large prints and, in the end, framing all that creative energy into an attractive frame, which will adorn someone’s living or work space. That is the reason why photography has been my creative choice, one artist’s story made up of four different art forms.

Awards and achievements do not mean much to me, even though they were one of the reasons why I stopped participating in joint exhibitions and competitions back in 1992, and from then on I compete only against myself. That makes sense to me and has given me the greatest joy.

I am not a photographer bound to one branch or type of art work photography. Actually, quite the opposite, I believe motifs are all around us, when you live your life full of creativity and curiosity. However, I feel most at home where my curiosity and inspiration never runs dry, surrounded by the powers of the laws of nature of our respected mother Earth. That is the sole reason why I have become a landscape art work photographer who perfected own work mostly on personal way, not so much as it is taught in schools or universities.

Part of my childhood and most of my teenage years, even most of my school years, I spent in the darkroom and roaming around nature. Every once in a while this caused trouble especially during my school years, so I “barely“ passed my grades. This also happened during my education in photography, which my esteemed professor did not mind. For these very reasons I still see myself more as a self-taught photographer, than a professional. Regardless of my life style in the past, today I'm not especially hungry for new additional knowledges, I have learned so much up till now, that I can now enjoy in creative combining what I learned in my next three lifetimes.

In the old days cameras and technology served a purpose of documenting important moments. Today in the age of technological overkill and clutter, and the number of people who use this technology, more and more I like the fact that it is clear that a camera can be used by a photographer in the same way as a painter uses a brush or a musician a musical instrument. For the musician, without a good ear, there is no true music! Just like no two composers will write the same song and perform it in the same way, no two photographers will take an identical picture, even under the same circumstances.

The latest expansion of technology created a need in more and more people to look for instant solutions, forms and ways to find shortcuts to become master art work photographers. Art work photography is the result of an exclusively visual creativity. For those who want to go further than the technically "correct" photography, there is no way to achieve that, because each motif requires a completely different creative approach. If you imagine a cabinet with a hundred drawers, and in each drawer we store a certain amount of knowledge available to be used in the moment of taking a picture for a particular motif, it is really easy to realize that you don't need expensive equipment or software with all the possibilities to take the right shot. You only need time. There are easily more than a hundred drawers, and exactly how many of them your cabinet has, depends on the time spent behind the camera and the way you spent that time. When we select the information in our cabinet without thinking, but that selection happens spontaneously, our energy can be freed up to be used on the motif itself, and that's the beginning of our creative story.

Fine art landscape photography is an incredible creative world, which, along with some motifs that are found spontaneously, mostly requires knowing the weather conditions, going to certain locations multiple times, waiting for the right moment, spending the night under the sky, and often having some unpleasant moments. All that requires a lot of thought, wisdom, planning and knowledge, and what is most important is that each photographer approaches the whole artistic story in a unique way.

When a photographer has experience and his/her own personal style, it is the right decision to hire such a professional. It is also important to mention, in the end, knowledge and technique are not as crucial for professionals. What an experienced photographer will focus on are the motif and the wishes of the client.

To do what we love and what fulfills us is fitness for the soul. Yet, true joy comes only when what is fulfilling can also help us make a living and bring us new life with new and better creations.

Boris Vargovic

Boris Vargovic Fine Art Photography - PROFESSIONAL OFFER

As a professional, (btw, I do not like that word ☺) besides selling my art on the web, I am available to consult or work with you on any projects involving art work photography of nature, urban areas, private property, interiors or exteriors, real estate properties, tourist locations or buildings, national parks, gardens, etc., regardless of what part of the world it is located in.

Personally or together with my team I am also available for larger scale art work projects, such as thematic photography of cities, counties, regions, even entire countries through all four seasons, which entails landscape, cityscape, aerial photography, night photography and videography for the purpose of creating catalogues, tourist brochures, monographies, and web pages, photo archives and many other demanding purposes. Along with professional photography services, I also do graphic design, professional photo processing and multiple large photo printing services, therefore potential customers can count on a complete range of professional services if needed. I personally print and frame all my photos and if a buyer has a special request regarding printing or framing, not mentioned in the offers, contact options are permanently open. As one of references for my own graphic design, data preparation and conception are also these my pages, programmed and developed by Pixelator.

I can be hired for the starting fee of $650 per day, plus expenses, prior reservations necessary to ensure I'm available at the requested time before signing the final contract for larger projects. I take great pride in making myself available to my customers to answer questions, for all inquiries please click on [Turn on JavaScript to see the email address] or contact information, I will respond in a timely manner. For my complete professional offer click on shipping option.

What I offer and sell on my web page are not my long-term investments into expensive equipment, years of experience and work, a college diploma or my ever deteriorating eye-sight. I see money as a stimulation and reward for the most important thing that cannot be bought with money – my personal creative vision and a built-in way of looking at the world, which are the result of more than 3.5 decades of a photography life-style that I have personally lived.

Thank you very much for stopping by my website, I hope you enjoy looking at some of my images as much as I enjoyed making most of them. Please return regularly and consider sharing this website with your friends and family.