Belgrade Raw : The longer I look, the dumber it gets
17. 9. – 24. 10. 2025
The acclaimed photography collective Belgrade Raw makes its long-awaited Slovenian debut this September at Photon Gallery. Founded in 2009, Belgrade Raw explores the social, urban, and political dimensions of city life through the medium of photography. The collective actively documents everyday life in Belgrade, offering a raw and honest reflection of its community and urban environment.
In this exhibition, after fifteen years of working together, the collective returns to the processual nature of their practice, questioning what remains before and after each finished image. In this new iteration, images and texts function as drafts, traces, and openings for new interpretations. The exhibition blends archival material and sketches—merging the past with what is yet to come. Working as a collective gives them the space to slow down—to explore, to observe together, and to decide what matters and how to present it. Rather than adhering to strict rules or a singular visual style, each member works in their own way, united by a shared commitment to documenting everyday urban life. Belgrade Raw now enters a new chapter, welcoming Jelena Nikolić as its newest member.
Members of the Belgrade Raw collective are: Andrej Filev, Jelena Mijić, Aleksandra Mihajlović, Jelena Nikolić, Milovan Milenković, Nemanja Knežević, Luka Knežević – Strika, Mane Radmanović, Dušan Rajić, Darko Stanimirović and Saša Trifunović.
Belgrade Raw has exhibited its work on numerous occasions, both through solo exhibitions in galleries and as part of local and international festivals in London, Sarajevo, Vienna, Split, Pittsburg. For five consecutive years, the collective organized a photo fair, and for four years in a row, it ran a series of workshops dedicated exclusively to documentary photography, titled Serbia Raw. The collective also published the Serbia Raw photo book, compiling work produced by participants in 13 Serbian cities.
