“After a freak motorcycle accident left me with two crack vertebrate in my back and neck, two broken ribs, and a four-month confinement in bed, I realized what direction my career as a photographer would take after my recovery. I recalled a photograph of a tiger I had taken a few years back while at a zoon. I was struck by what had jumped out of the picture—a personality, a soul. It dawned on me that what the lens had somehow caught could be best portrayed in black and white. The essence of a creature’s spirit captured solely through motion and light,” Boza Ivanovic writes in the introduction to his first monograph, Out of the Wild: Zoo Portraits (Glitterati Incorporated).
I first met Ivanovic a few months before the accident, and when he told me of it, I began sending him books. After the accident, he began sending me photographs: portraits of animals behind bars, behind glass, only their trappings were invisible and what remained was a life anonymous, unknown but living for public viewing. The animals Ivanovic captured with his camera were living in captivity and each photograph reflects their singularity, their separation from all that is their natural reality.
It is in the instance of the lion, that a grandeur is conferred, because in Ivanovic’s lion we know the greatness that graces us, from within and from without. There is a pride and a humility, a purity and an honesty that the lion evokes. His visage takes my breath away, over and over again. Perhaps this is a tribute to the patience and discipline that Ivanovic exhibited to secure this shot.
For four days he waited outside the lion cage at the Los Angeles Zoo. Four days, from nine in the morning until five in the afternoon, day after day, to watch the lion sleep. The king slept, oblivious to Ivanovic, and so he stayed, a testimony to the deference the king of the jungle demands. Until it is he awakens, Ivanovic there to witness the moment. He recalls, “It was beautiful and powerful, and at the same time, very peaceful. It became quire clear that every animal had its own distinct personality. He seemingly fierce lion may really be a gentle soul, while the outwardly cute monkey may have real anger management issues. It took hours of observation to get to know each creature.”
The photograph of the lion has taken on new life in the form of tattoo art, as the photograph has been transformed into tattoo art. Over the past year, dozens of photographs have appeared on Instagram showing different body parts adorned with detailed lion head tattoos: shoulders, chests, abdomens, backs, biceps, forearms, hands, thighs, and calves. Everywhere the lion can appear, he does.
Ivanovic recalls receiving the first email in early 2013 from a woman asking for permission to use the photograph as the subject of her tattoo. He recalls, “I was in shock. It too me weeks to answer! I had mixed feelings about it. Then I found a picture on a tattoo of the lion on Instagram so I did a search and I found 30-40 more. It was shocking. Now I find one or two new ones every day. I realize that some people will have this lion tattoo until they die, and if somebody is willing to do something like that then that means this lion has great meaning for them and I am okay with that.” Ivanovic’s lion touches the heart of so many, in such a powerful way, showing that the influence of photography in the digital era cannot be underestimated.
BOOK
Out of the Wild: Zoo
Portraits by Boza Ivanovic
Glitterati incorporated
192 pages; 13 x 10″; landscape hardcover;
140 b/w photos
ISBN: 978-0-9881745-2-8
$60.00
http://glitteratiincorporated.com/products/out-of-the-wild-by-boza-ivanovic
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