And, if we could sum it up in one sentence, it would be: “‘Crisis’ against the crisis!”

After a three-year hiatus, Photo Club Split again organized the prestigious Split Format international photography festival this year, delighting visitors with its rich program.

The theme of this edition was – crisis. Being more than just about photography, the festival itself, along with the exhibition, offered visitors a series of interesting lectures by eminent experts who gave their perspective on the crisis, understood as a series of social fractures and turmoil that affect each of us.

“We chose crisis as a concept that encourages photographers to explore and interpret different aspects of crises – from personal struggles to global social changes, creating an opportunity for photographers to capture the essence of the moment with their lenses, providing the audience with not only a visual experience but also a deep emotional understanding of the world around us,” explained the organizers.

32 photographers from 6 countries worldwide covered the selected topic through the photo contest.

The winner was the Italian photographer Pierpaolo Mittica with the series ‘And Then the Winter Came’, which tells the story of the residents of Kyiv who, after the Russian invasion, were left without electricity and the possibility of heating.

The first lecture was held by Boško Picula on the subject of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With the lecture “War in Gaza 2023 – A new escalation in seventy-five years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict“, Picula brought closer the historical, political, and social side of the humanitarian disaster that is currently unfolding in the overcrowded area of the Gaza Strip.

Shortly after the first presentation, a lecture and presentation of the book “Čekaonica za drugi svijet” (Waiting Room for a Different World) by Denis Mahmutović followed. Denis’ presentation about the people of Banija was very emotional and brought closer to everyone present the fate of the people about whom Denis says the following: “Their real tragedy is that people stopped seeing them as people.”

In the lecture entitled “Hope and Hopelessness in Times of Crisis“, Ivan Urlić spoke about the nature of hope in relation to the hopelessness that overwhelms us in times of crisis, while Katarina Duplančić held a lecture “Art as a Reaction to the Crisis“, in which she presented art as one of the ways to achieve personal and social betterment in transient periods of crisis.

Documentary photographer and videographer Zoran Marinović presented the lecture “Crisis Through the Lens“, which, due to Zoran’s direct and approachable nature, and, as he noted, the familial atmosphere in Photo Club Split, turned into a dynamic discussion with the gathered visitors. Zoran readily answered all the questions and thus shared his photojournalistic and – above all human – story.

Nikola Glamuzina held the last lecture within the Split Format program. In the lecture titled “Climate crisis – roots, state, prospects“, through the prism of the crisis as this year’s festival theme, he clarified the main terms that are widely used by the general public today, such as climate change, global warming, the greenhouse effect, and others. The main focus of the lecture was on the theoretical framework of climate change from the end of the last ice age to the present day, with a special focus on human influence.

After this year’s edition, we’re eagerly looking forward to the continuation of Split Format in the future!

Split Format was held with the support of the Tourist Board of the City of Split, the City of Split, the Tourist Board of Split-Dalmatia County, Locastic, Marvie Hotel, Pipi, Pixsell Photo and Video Agency, Foto Dalmacija, DalmacijaDanas, and split.com.hr and is part of the program “Regular annual program of the “Fotoklub Split” association“, which is financed by the funds of the “Kultura nova” Foundation.

Photos: Miroslav Lelas and Milan Šabić