Sandra Vitaljic

I Just Greet Back

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I moved to Sweden in October 2018 and suddenly realized I had to consider myself an immigrant. I tried to cope with the negative connotations of the term. I struggled with the indignity of it.

I started to collect stories about the everyday struggles of women I met on my path as an immigrant. Usually, we meet over a cup of coffee. We talk like friends and share our experiences. I write down excerpts that I find most telling.

Those stories reflect a struggle for dignity in precarious circumstances while becoming a mirror of society, revealing the working and living conditions, the mentality and cultural differences. My photographs and a herbarium with the keywords for the experiences complement the stories. Together, they form a collective diary.

About the Artist

Artist Website

Sandra Vitaljic holds an MFA in photography from the Academy of Performing Arts, Film and TV (FAMU) in Prague and subsequently pursued her doctoral studies in the history and theory of photography at the same institution. From 2004 to 2019, she served as a professor of photography at the Academy of Performing Arts in Zagreb, actively contributing to establishing the Department of Photography.

 In her work, she focuses on social issues and deals with collective memory, violence, and the invisible experiences of immigrants. In her theoretical and curatorial pursuits, Sandra engages with the complexities of conflict photography and the ethical considerations surrounding photographic representation.

Sandra Vitaljic has authored three books: “Infertile Grounds”, “War of Images – Contemporary War Photography” and “Up Close and Personal: War in Croatia”. Her works have been showcased in solo and group exhibitions, including “Natural Histories: Traces of the Political” at MUMOK, Vienna, in 2017, “Vigilance, Struggle, Pride: Through Her Eyes” in Zagreb, Maribor, and Berlin in 2018, and “Beloved” at Chobi Mela VII in Dhaka.

Presently, she is based in Stockholm.