The neighbourhood - Phase 2 - Michel Stojiljković

Introduction:
Next to Aram, I also contacted another hobby photographer. I also really like his street photography which is why I contacted him. He preferred to chat on Instagram instead of having a call so I did that with him. Michel’s answers weren’t the answers I expected and I really liked that. He said, for example, that he didn’t feel an urge at all to document this period and he had his reasons.

I am a photography student from Rotterdam and for a university project I am trying to find people to interview. It's mainly about the current situation and how photographers behave right now. My project is about street photography during the Corona crisis and I look specifically at the changing body language of people. I would be very happy if we could talk about your experiences of the current time in a short talk.

I didn’t take pictures during the period, I didn’t want to keep any memories. So i don't know if i could help you.

First of all thanks for answering! That is perfect! A new point of view is always good for a project. I have some questions that I want to ask other people but they are mainly about photography. So if you want to could you explain why you don’t want to keep any memories of this time? I think that’s really interesting.

In writing there will be no problem answering your questions.

Great! So maybe we could start with why you don’t want to keep memories of this right now? We could just do it as a normal chat. Back and forth - And thanks again for your help!

For starters, i didn’t want to take a picture, because i was really sad to see where all of humanity had arrived and where it still is because of the human idiocy. the city streets were very beautiful empty, but when I thought about the reasons why they were empty, it made me absolutely not want to take photos, because I always take photos of life, of life on the street, the empty streets do not represent the image I have of the street photo, which must be alive

I had similar feelings but I felt the need to document those empty streets and the changes on people’s faces you see during that phase. I understand your point though. Do you see yourself as a photographer that mainly wants to show the beauty in all things or do you approach your photography in a more documentary kind of way?
Or more specific what kind of photography genre or branch do you thing would describe your photography the best?

I'm just a street photographer, if you look at my profile pictures you will see that I almost exclusively photograph the street and the things and people who are there.

Yeah I really like them! That’s why I follow you. When do you think you will start photographing again then?

Did you produce any other art during your non photography phase?

That's awesome! So you focused more on your painting skills because you didn't want to take pictures of the empty streets.