Until I Wake Your Ghost

Until I Wake Your Ghost is a project that documents the haunting beauty of rural homes, once vibrant with life - now almost entirely deserted.

Until I Wake Your Ghost tells the story of depopulation and migration to the city, due to capitalism, industrialization and the resulting poverty in abandoned rural areas. It is a photo project that documents once vibrant rural homes, now almost entirely empty and haunted by the memory of what they used to be, and the fantasy of what they could have been. This series of photographs exposes a melancholic, and even tragic destiny of a historically rich village called Zablaće, near the city of Šabac in central-western Serbia. Once a prosperous agricultural community that peaked mid-century, the population of Zablaće has shrunk by nearly half to just around 450 residents - most of them relying heavily on the nearest city for work and income. The project explores the interplay between the immense, fertile landscape and the shrinking, aging domestic spaces of the people who still farm its soil.

My personal family history is deeply tied to this location - the houses depicted in these photos were built by my great-grandfather and his brothers. I would visit every summer and holiday, and I grew up knowing several generations of people who lived and died here. I personally watched these houses, yards and barns - once full of people and animals - simply losing life.

All photos were taken during the summers of 2024 - 2026, on 35mm film. I used Fujichrome Sensia 100 (expired in 2007) for the color images, and Kodak T-Max 400 for the black and white images. I shoot with a vintage Fujica STX-1 camera. My entire body of work is exclusively analog.

The dream I have is to develop this project further with a series of similar locations around Serbia. To show the impact of large-scale change - of capitalism and urbanization - on the local and personal level.