New Folder: 'The strike at Elan' - photodocumentary from Serbia

[jan dirk geertsema]

This folder has some of the pics from a photodocumentary about the

strike at the agricultural combinate Elan, in Srbobran, Serbia, March

2001. I stayed with the striking workers for ten days. They didn't

have a salary since July 2000, and the strike was against the corrupt

management of Elan, belonging to the inner circle of Slobodan

Milosevic. The management eventually had to leave, but Elan was in

such a bad shape that it went bankrupt in the fall of 2001.

 

More photographs are to follow.

 

Jan Dirk<div></div>

[jan dirk geertsema]

Sorry, forgot the link.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=232936

[bds1]

Great work Jan

 

I like this the best though

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/969196

 

Thanks for sharing I'd love to see more of your work

 

B

 

http://www.briandavidstevens.com

[roberto_watson_garc_a]

Fine work Jan, maybe unfair to select one as prefered picture, since the documentary value of entire work, but women with cigarret is a great image, I personaly got more impresed by women in the shadow in the same image.

 

Tell us, was it dificult to move in this crowd of people, and was it a reason to chosse a telephoto lens for some of the pictures, how long were you there, and mainly used focals length can be known?

 

Thank´s for share, great work!

[jan dirk geertsema]

Roberto,

 

Thanks for your feedback. Refering to your questions: I used 24/35/50/90mm. I stayed with the family of Pedja Knezevic, a Serbian refugee from Croatia and agricultural engineer, and working with Elan since he fled from Croatia in 1995. Pedja was elected by the workers to be deputy director of the combinate after the corrupt management had been expelled. The whole economy in Srbobran existed from trading (stolen) goods, a bushel of wheat for two chicken etc., because there was no money left. None of the workers had received payment for nine months. I was able to photograph from close distance because I had been fully accepted by the workers after a couple of days, and was seen as a friend of Pedja. I had two reasons for working with the 90mm: (1) to isolate the subject, (2) because during the workers� union meeting the place was so crowded that I couldn�t move around anymore. The pics in the folder are just a few, I will post more as soon as I have scanned them.

 

Thanks again for your feedback,

Jan Dirk

[iván]

Hi, Jan:

 

My favourite: 969194.

 

I assume that conveying the complexity of that situation only through the expresions of the workers is a very difficult challenge to undertake.

 

Thanks for sharing, Jan. Best regards

 

-Iván

[chandos_michael_brown]

Very fine work, really: a pleasure to see it!

 

Chandos

[nesrani]

Nice pictures, Jan. But (there's always a bu!) it would be nice to see the effect of the strike on people's home lives, picket lines, men sitting around during the day with nothing to do, women shopping, trying to make ends meet, and so on. The public meeting aspect doesn't really tell the story of what it means to be on strike, the <i>economic</i> courage of it. I'm sure after ten days' shooting you must have more, hopefully covering the family aspects and so on? I'd love to see it.