Orada.Art Bern is pleased to announce the release of the book titled “Birth of a Ship” by  Nenad Saljic.

A few years back, a very good friend of mine decided to build a wooden sailing boat. It took him three years just to build all parts for the hull in a small garage of 6×3 m. During this period nobody was very optimistic about the project reaching completion. However, everything changed in October 2007 when the frame was finally assembled in an ugly and very cold hangar in our local yacht marina. At this point I was hooked by the beauty of the boat skeleton and after that I have spent hours crawling between the frames, together with my friend the boat builder and a growing number of visitors.

The ugly hangar progressively turned into place of worship almost like a church, where people came to pay their respect and admiration to a man who chose larch and iroko instead of plastics; the place like a concert hall radiating background echo of the sounds made by the tools, whispers, conversations, jokes and the thoughts of the boat builder and every spectator and bystander. All the pessimism had gone.

After year and a half the boat was turned in its normal position and moved from the hangar to open space for completion. Although this was highly anticipated and she was far from been finished, all the magic had suddenly gone. I felt my job was finished, and as far as I was concerned, she was completed at that point. The symphony was over, the haunting bass line of the hangar disappeared together with the melody of the hull and keel. The boat would make its own music in the future.

“…this is a book far from a project one would normally label documentary; I am hesitant to describe the images even as still lives; this is too immobile a term. The book feels as melodic as much as it is visual, the emanated waves not seen in watery form but within the lines weaving through the pages; a repeated motif of rising and falling mark-making. As I proceed through the pages it is the viewer that brings life to the shell of the ship.”

– Dawn Schuck –

NENAD ŠALJIĆ, born 1961 in Croatia, is a photographic artist. After obtaining a PhD in Economics and spending 18 years in the world of business, he decided to dedicate himself to his art projects. The Birth of a Ship, his first photographic project, has received several awards: Invitational Winner for forthcoming Photobook at the 2012 New York Photo Festival; First Prize Winner for the book in two categories at the 2013 IPA / Lucie Awards, Los Angeles; First Prize for publication at 2013 Photodays Rovinj, Croatia and the Winner at the 2013 PDN Photo Annual, New York. Šaljić is currently working on two projects: Petrified and Naked Mountains. In 2015 he completed a seven-year project with the book Matterhorn: Portrait of a Mountain. For the Matterhorn he has received several major awards, it is exhibited internationally and is also included in various international collections. Nenad Šaljić is represented by two Swiss galleries: Galerie Rigassi Bern and Kunsträume Zermatt. [Official Website]

NENAD ŠALJIĆ. BIRTH OF A SHIP

English, Hardcover 30×30 cm, 80 Pages
32 Black & White Duotone Photographs
Published by: Orada GmbH, Bern, Switzerland
Limited Edition of 500 copies
ISBN 978-3-033-05970-2
Price: 50.00€ (shipping included)

Online Orders: http://www.nenadsaljic.com/books/