SniperAlley.Photo

Jovo Lukić, novo lice jedne bolje Bosne i Hercegovine Ako je Džeko glavni lik naše velike priče o dostojanstvu, dugotrajnosti i svjetskoj klasi; ako su Bajraktarević i Alajbegović glavni likovi priče o samopouzdanju i novoj vrsti Bosanaca i Hercegovaca iz dijaspore… onda su Jovo Lukić i Amar Memić glavni likovi jedne pomalo zapostavljene ...

SIEGE MENTALITY

Alexandra Boulat’s photo from the book ‘Material World - A Global Family Portrait’
by Peter Menzel issued in 1994

Nedžad Bucalović with his family in front of their house.

All photos made in October 1993 when late Alexandra was covering the Siege of Sarajevo.

STANDING TO REMEMBER: SARAJEVO 1994–1996

Photo Exhibition
June 4–17, 2026
Sarajevo Memorial Center, Kovači, Sarajevo
Opening: June 4, 2026, 19:00
Curated by Lejla Hodžić

As part of the cooperation between the Ministry for Veterans’ Affairs of Canton Sarajevo, the University of Sarajevo, the Sarajevo Memorial Center, and the WARM Foundation, the exhibition STANDING TO REMEMBER: Sarajevo 1994–1996 presents the work of Mohsen Rastani, one of Iran’s most important documentary photographers.

The exhibition brings together sixty photographs made in Sarajevo and across Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1994 and 1996, during and immediately after the siege. Having arrived in Bosnia after documenting wars in Iran and Lebanon, Rastani recorded everyday life, the consequences of war, the first moments of peace, and the people who continued to live despite destruction and loss.

Mohsen Rastani (1958) belongs to the generation of Iranian photographers that emerged after the revolution. A graduate of the University of Tehran, he has spent decades documenting social and humanitarian issues in conflict and post-conflict environments. His work has been exhibited extensively in Iran and internationally, including at the Venice Biennale in 2011 and at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in 2014. Today he lives and works in Germany.

Mohsen Rastani is not a conventional war photographer. His photographs portray people living through war, recording pain, suffering, and loneliness, but also brief moments of happiness. In his own words, photography is a medium for freezing time within a frame. Yet his images are full of life: a man still stands on one leg, a woman with a burned face is still alive, a child on the street looks back at the viewer with the gaze of an adult. Time is not frozen in any of these photographs.

Presented for the first time in Sarajevo, these photographs offer a rare and intimate testimony by a foreign author who witnessed Bosnia and Herzegovina at a defining moment in its recent history. Created during the photographer’s extended stay in the country, they document the transition from war to peace and invite us to reflect on memory, resilience, and the lasting consequences of conflict.

Thirty years later, Rastani’s photographs remain a powerful reminder of why war, art, reporting, and memory continue to matter.

https://sniperalley.photo/photographers/nggallery/photographers/mohsen-rastani/


Photo ©️ Mohsen Rastani

WAR TOYS

Children living through the 1,425-day Siege of Sarajevo (1992–1996) adapted to constant bombardment and sniper fire by making the war a part of their play.

Amidst the ruins, children built forts, used wooden toy guns, collected shrapnel and bullet casings and pretended to defend their city against the surrounding forces.

Children saw their fathers and defenders as role models, often playing war games that mirrored the frontline battles unfolding in their own neighborhoods.

Lacking standard toys, children fashioned toys out of the materials of war, playing with empty machine-gun cartridges, unexploded artillery shrapnel, and discarded shell casings.


Photo©️Mohsen Rastani

Povratak ljiljana: Šta su Bošnjaci i Bosna doživjeli od 2013. do danas Društvenim mrežama kruži upečatljiva montaža dvije fotografije navijača fudbalske reprezentacije Bosne i Hercegovine. Na fotografiji iz 2013. dominira državna plavo-žuta zastava, a na fotografiji sa posljednje utakmice protiv Sjeverne Makedonije tribina je poklopljena ljiljanima. Ova sličic...