There were always jarring contrasts.

This enormous ruined housing complex for the elderly, “Pastel Ruin,” was close to my house

The old Serbian Orthodox Church

The white cemeteries that quilt the city. A constant memorial to the war dead

Urban Bee Hives

The city is full of fruit trees and many people make their own honey and brew the local brandy - Rakija

Sarajevo

Streets

2013-2017

New mosques, and Catholic Churches were under various stages of construction across the city. Years in the making

A ruined school (?) around the corner from my house. Community members were working together to safely tear it down when I left. Wild dogs had taken up shelter there.

What follows are a broad selection of pictures from across the city - places I passed nearly everyday

The old Turkish Bath House, empty shell of a bombed-out building from the Austro-Hungarian period and the Catholic Church

The Train Station Platform

Woman with walker in garage alley

I lived in Sarajevo for four years and during that time I began taking pictures to help me process the

sadness and trauma that permeated it’s still-scarred urban landscape after the Siege of Sarajevo that ended in 1995.

“Persistent Kiss”

An unnamed sculpture that survived the war. Smog is a winter constant.

There was so much incredible street art in Sarajevo I could make a whole separate page full of it. Maybe one day I will

Above is a portion of “sniper alley” that has been rebuilt.

This ruin was part of the University of Sarajevo destroyed during the war.

These mortar “roses” are everywhere in the city. I began documenting them, collecting them with my camera. Somehow it gave me a little control over the horrible imbedded memories I knew they represented

“Beautiful Blast”

This Sarajevo “rose” held a terrifying aesthetic perfection

The radiant, defiant and often poignant street art was a ubiquitous counter balance to the structural war wounds virtually everywhere

The Holiday Inn of Sniper Alley

The 1884 Winter Olympic Snowflake

on the Ferhadija, the busy pedestrian promenade through old town.

This artist’s murals usually depict the dead buried underground but still seemingly living among the snails, ants and worms