Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Elia Pekica Pagon
Photos of Predrag Dubravčić: Bogdan Kijanica and Drago Vinkl
Predrag Dubravčić was born in Zagreb, where instead of studying physics as intended, he enrolled in camera studies at the film academy. At that time he was a drummer in several more or less (un)known Zagreb bands and also presented his first exhibitions of minimalist black and white photos.
In 1988, after finishing his studies, he went to New York, where he worked on building a career as an advertising photographer. In the mid ’90s, he began shooting films and TV commercials. Thus far he has recorded more than 300 commercials for a variety of clients in the US and Europe, and a dozen short films. He has continued with photography for personal, non-commercial purposes, and in 2009 published a book called Small Images of Nothing. In 2013 he filmed the feature film Cowboys in Zagreb, and last year the feature Nika in Koper.
Elia Pekica Pagon: Could you briefly comment on your early years in Zagreb – your first life experiences, education, social life?
Predrag Dubravčić: Uh, the very first question and I already have a problem answering! I have never – or at least not for a long time – thought about it. I stored it all into some “young and stupid” category. I say that with benevolence and sympathy, because the naive stupidity, egomania and exaggerated enthusiasm for newly discovered things in life, the attempts to assert oneself and gain importance on the local social stage, all this is very nice and helpful for later on. Of course, if it doesn’t last until the later days!
Elia Pekica Pagon: Talking about social life, how would you compare the social climate in your home town then with that of today?
Predrag Dubravčić: Social climate is a subjective matter, and objectivity is impossible from this nostalgic hindsight. I perceive and remember the climate back then for the most part only through entirely subjective impressions, and through the countless emotional veils that I believe everyone has towards their past. What remains are few facts that you can rely on. We were a cocky generation. At one point during puberty I discovered that communication with the transcendent (which we usually call art), which made me crazy with a lust for life. Everything was smaller, and of course less connected with the absence of the internet. It was harder to promote and share your work, but there was perhaps an enthusiasm to make up for it in other ways, “on foot” … there is some symbolism in the fact that back in those days there was at least one local band concert every night in the Zagreb clubs.
Elia Pekica Pagon: To leave one’s hometown and go out into the world is a very brave decision. How did you decide to go to New York in 1988?
Predrag Dubravčić: I don’t think I would have ever been able to make that decision. I’m not brave enough to leave the known world for an unknown one. Or I was not depressed enough, or in war with the known world… So it was all fate’s doing. I went there because I was in love with a girl.
Elia Pekica Pagon: What were your first years in New York like? Did you ever feel like a foreigner there?
Predrag Dubravčić: Those first years were the greatest school of humility in the world. Especially in contrast with the self-importance and adolescent arrogance that I had brought along with me. It was immediately obvious that it would have been better if I’d left it all in Zagreb. Because when a man doesn’t come into a new world with enough of a plan, or especially enough money, the entire cosmic structure immediately gets turned upside down. One’s own unworthiness becomes clear in comparison with all the talented people who are concentrated in such a large city. You accept odd jobs (bartender for example) in order to survive, and, of course, you live at a much lower standard than the one you left behind. I sometimes wonder whether such a destruction of ego had negative consequences on my career, whether it destroyed too much of my confidence. (Because the ego is not the worst thing in the world). However, I hope that it destroyed only the arrogant, false, oversized self-confidence I had when I flew over here, and that what remains is something much more real.
Elia Pekica Pagon: What is your social life in New York like in comparison to socializing in Zagreb?
Predrag Dubravčić: We often joke about this subject. In NY you need to arrange any meeting at least one week in advance and write it in your diary, otherwise nothing will come of it. And then I sit in the car (or motorcycle, if I’m lucky with the weather), and then I drive an hour somewhere to see someone, at the same time trying to include as many other things as I can on the trip, a museum, a concert… otherwise I feel a bit defeated if I find myself just driving back home after a one-hour meeting. Social life is definitely better in smaller communities, because at some stage of expansion (and Zagreb, for instance, is very close to this phase) such a large accumulation of people simply becomes impractical, and as it progresses brings nothing good, because it’s already physically impossible to follow everything that a city the size of NY has to offer. Therefore, in cities the size of New York City, there is a tendency to form small neighborhoods within which people circulate and, I suppose, imagine they live in a smaller town – something more humane in its proportions.
Elia Pekica Pagon: When did you realize you wanted to work with film and photography?
Predrag Dubravčić: That also happened by chance. Children get a camera as a gift by chance, and then they have the opportunity to try photography. Maybe it doesn’t even matter whether they get it as a present, the main thing is that they grab something that allows them expression – some valve through which that within can surface, not only for the eyes of the world, but for their own eyes as well. That’s maybe even more important (and maybe selfish?) because that’s how you get to know yourself.
Elia Pekica Pagon: You deal with art photography, shoot movies of various genres, and music videos, but also often ads. What is your favorite part of creativity, what do you enjoy the most?
Predrag Dubravčić: I enjoy everything, of course. Somehow it seems logical that it’s more exciting to do something more intimate, something with less compromise, which would be my photography, which is the closest to me, and which I do by myself. However, this is somewhat of an eternal dilemma with me, between the isolated solitary life (which I enjoy immensely, and I’m lucky to live in a forest), and immersion in communication with society (which I equally enjoy, and hence the problem!). Loneliness is great for peace and concentration, but it lacks – provocation. The noise in the channel, the imperfections that occur when other people’s opinions and feelings collide with ours, that’s something that is often underestimated. I think that’s the value of all collective creativity, and consequently of applied creativity.
Elia Pekica Pagon: You have worked a lot with both Croatian and global advertising agencies. What are your experiences in working with them, and how much artistic freedom do you have in this sphere of your activities?
Predrag Dubravčić: The best collaborations are those in which each of the participants raises the level of thought by just one degree – and then the second one does the same, and the whole project then collectively rises to a much higher level than expected. Such a process does not recognize geographical boundaries of course, because it is inherently human. What stops it – which is also universally omnipresent – is the practical fear of the opinion of the top people in large corporations. So you can always see this syndrome of conservatism, proportional to the size of the agency / client, not only in advertising but also in television and movies. If we want to get rid of these shackles, we will need faith in the concept of authorship, where more decisions are, unconditionally and with full confidence, left to a single author, who would be the creative director at the agency, and then the director on the set. I often nostalgically think about the era of the auteur film of the ’60s and ’70s. That era of freedom clearly brought loads of masterpieces to life, and it surprises me that no one has ever thought of learning something from it.
Elia Pekica Pagon: How do you avoid clichés in filming ads?
Predrag Dubravčić: Very simple: I don’t want to be bored. It’s very rare that I film something that I don’t like, and when I do it seems like a disaster to me. Regardless of whether it’s a commercial or a movie, I try to find a way, an approach that will ensure that I can say that I like what was filmed – that I feel what it means emotionally, and that the emotion is genuine. This is clearly not possible if I just repeat myself. Sometimes, of course, it’s difficult when you find yourself in a situation that is a cliché in itself, which I’ve already had to film so many times. But I always get surprised when I see that there is still a new way. Often the emotional intent of the scene shows me the way to this new approach which I never knew existed. On the other hand, and (semi)paradoxically, repetition can actually be interesting, like a parody let’s say. It’s important, of course, to know that, to feel it, and then do it so that the parody is clear to everyone, so that they do not think that something was done according to a recipe, out of pure laziness, as it often can be.
Elia Pekica Pagon: If you had to choose work from all you’ve done so far, which best represents you as a filmmaker and a photographer, which works would you choose and why?
Predrag Dubravčić: Ugh, I automatically think on such an abstract level that it’s impossible for me to choose anything in particular that would be “the best”. I often wish it wasn’t so. I wish that I could give someone an example of an idea that I have in my head. But this is impossible, because an idea is abstract, and the only possible, the most perfect of the imperfect examples, will be what will be recorded. That’s why I also like to give instructions for color correction in writing, rather than with a collection of visual examples that I could download from the internet.
Elia Pekica Pagon: You have received numerous awards and recognition for your work. Do awards help in getting new projects?
Predrag Dubravčić: I have no idea… It’s nice to see some feedback on your work, right? When I look at my biography I see that I haven’t made a lot of movies, but almost every one of them received an award for the cinematography, and I am almost surprised, and happy of course. Did anyone else ever feel such a surprise and hire me because of it – I do not know. I would certainly still find their opinion about my work more important than their impressions about these “certificates of quality”.
Elia Pekica Pagon: As an artist and an author, you plan your time on your own, and choose the projects to work on. What does your normal work day look like?
Predrag Dubravčić: Perhaps more independent than an artist, which means that I usually accept the first job that comes. It seems to me it’s perhaps amoral to choose. I think I am obliged to accept a job if I’m free, and then if a “better” project comes along the next day, then I am equally obliged to refuse it because the other one came first. But still, I always fully devote myself to a project, regardless of what it looks like at first glance, and often (perhaps as a reward for such patience), projects turn out better than I expected. Maybe I just avoid the responsibility of choice, and let fate make choices for me!
As for my usual day, there is not much control or planning there. Since I devoted myself to filming, I know that I can’t plan beyond one week in advance. Things are constantly changing and the only thing I was able to learn in the process is how to be flexible and go with the flow, to find the beauty in it every day. Maybe that’s why I love routines on my days off, when I retire to my woods, and I know when I’m going for a walk, when I’m going to play music, and in the evening I usually watch a movie on Blu-ray and so on.
Elia Pekica Pagon: How did you decide to publish the book Small Images of Nothing, what is its main message?
Predrag Dubravčić: At one moment it hit me that an exhibition, no matter how beautiful and majestic an event it is, is something very limited, locally and temporally. That makes it more difficult to do, and on the other hand it limits the scope of audience. I crammed into the book a few years of my photos, some 200 photos (of which I would likely expose only a fifth in the best case scenario), which in this form will be available more or less indefinitely. Several years have passed since that book, so now I have plenty of material for a new one, roughly twice as thick. But it bothers me when I think about the environmental impact of the use of paper, so I’m experimenting with sharing online at: http://inside.predrag.net.
Elia Pekica Pagon: At what stage is your music career as a drummer?
Predrag Dubravčić: In the introversion stage. For years, no, decades, I’ve been playing almost every day when I’m not working. Here in the basement we have a nice studio where you can make noise, even late at night, without bothering anyone. The neighbors are quite far away. I think that I constantly move somewhere in my music, that I progress somewhere. Sometimes I’m lucky to get a friend to jam with me, or my wife joins me on the keyboard, but it’s been a very long time since I played in a band, and who knows what would be if this were to happen. I hope one day soon…