Windows: Variable Composition

Windows: Variable Composition is a series of photographs made over a one year period. The project lasted from December 31st, 2007 until January 1st, 2009. Every day, if my time allowed me, I photographed the same frame, an old tenant house facade in Zagreb’s city area called Savica. What makes that facade different from the others is the fact that people who live there dry their clean laundry on ropes in front of their windows. The change of seasons, the different combinations of colors and shapes, the clothes, and many other spontaneous compositions brought this facade to life, and brought diversity to it, hence portraying some sort of life habits and dwellers’ tastes.

The architecture that surrounds us determines our surrounding, but it is the human habits that by shaping the objects for their needs actually give life to them. What seems to be uninteresting and dull, if paid a little bit of attention to, can reveal a part of people’s lives hidden behind those windows that we regularly ignore when passing by. Unfortunately, that kind of vivacity, unconsciously delivered by people’s everyday housework, slowly vanishes in urban areas due to certain legal provisions that forbid it and due to technological aids and clothes dryers.

The series encompasses 280 photographs shot with Canon G9 and 350D camera.