THE LAST DAYS OF SUMMER # 2 – Mostar

A Mostar walkabout at the end of September – I was in the city for the premiere of my documentary, The Partisan Necropolis. The film had its first showing, World Premiere, at the Sarajevo Film Festival the previous month, but this screening felt different. This was Mostar—this was the hometown of the stories I had tried to tell. Over 200 locals were coming to see the film, and the weight of that made the evening both exhilarating and nerve-wracking.

To calm my nerves before the screening, I decided to spend the day wandering the city, armed with a camera, and seeing Mostar through black and white photography. The light was extraordinary—low, direct, and imbued with just a hint of warmth. The season was on the cusp of change, and these truly were the last days of summer for Mostar.

It was a rare privilege to explore the city without the pressure of shooting a feature-length documentary. The work, the planning, the logistics—all of that was behind me now. For once, I could simply observe, frame, and experience the city on its own terms.

Naturally, my first stop was the Partisan Memorial Cemetery. For the first time, I photographed it in black and white, and the low sunlight transformed it into something almost otherworldly. Shadows stretched across the tombstones, light glancing off the monuments, turning the memorial into a magical landscape that felt both solemn and alive.

As I walked, I found myself thinking that perhaps the entire documentary should have been shot in black and white. There was a timelessness to the city and its monuments in this light, a clarity and simplicity that color sometimes obscures. But that was a thought for another time. For now, it was enough to wander, to see Mostar and the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in the way they deserved to be seen—quietly, reflectively, and with a sense of reverence.