Branko Cvetkovič (born April 15, 1951) is Slovenian photographer known for his philosophically conceptualized approach to photography. Working mostly with large-format cameras, his architecture photography is minimalistically structured. From symmetry he opens up the space perspective to deconstructivism, and in art there is a transition to a non-perspective suprematist plane, thus coinciding with abstract expressionism.Dejan Sluga, director and curator of Photon Gallery , in his opinion of Cvetkovic`s artwork Besides space, his main concern is the phenomenon of light itself, the two basic postulates in photography.
Biography Branko Cvetkovič was born on April 15, 1951, in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, former Yugoslavia. He graduated in political economics under the mentorship of one of the best known Yugoslavian economists, France Cerne, at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Ljubljana. After working for various research institutions, he served as an expert for manpower for the government of the Republic of Seychelles. He was also appointed as an expert for the United Nations organization Habitat.
He started to become involved with photography in 1986 and 1987 in the Seychelles. This coincidental beginning and later obsession was triggered by his fascination with light – a reminiscence of a childhood awareness of the light on the houses of his birthplace – and an emerging sensitivity to fine art, dating from his student years. Nevertheless, his first two independent, and still amateur, projects were the Creole houses and a continuous conceptual recording of the light above the island Silhouette. After his return home he abandoned his work as an economist and went on to work as an artist, a profession in his belief of greater importance and of greater and lasting value. He started to work professionally in photography; upgrading his technical skills and perception of fine art. Since 1990 he has been a free-lance photographer working mainly in architecture, industry and art; in the early years he also dealt with creative and artistic management and design.
In the years 1992 – 98 the several works were awarded, where Cvetkovič played a role as creative, conceptual or art director, co-designer and photographer.(from the cycle "The rocks and the sea"). Authors: creative idea and concept B. Cvetkovic, art direction B. Cvetkovic and J. Oslaj, design J. Oslaj, photography B. CvetkovicEPICA (Europe`s Premier Creative Award), Diplôme de finaliste, Edition, UBK Banka, calendar 1992. Authors: creative idea and concept B. Cvetkovic, art direction B. Cvetkovic and J. Oslaj, design J. Oslaj, photography B. Cvetkovic EPICA BOOK 6, page 328, Europe's Best Advertising. Publisher Rotovision (October 1993). The final selection for the best calendar by MM in 1993 for the calendar for UBK Bank entitled "The echo of the world" (from the cycle "The light within the sea-shells"). Authors: creative idea, concept and art direction B. Cvetkovic, design Z. Bracevac, photography B. Cvetkovic, fine art graphics L. Zakrajsek, text A. Bassin and B. Cvetkovic EPICA (Europe`s Premier Creative Award), finalist 1996, for the photographic monograph "The market in Ljubljana designed by the architect Jože Plečnik", Rokus 1996. Authors: creative idea and conceptual design and photography B. Cvetkovic, design J. Oslaj, text P. Krecic, A. Krecic, essay on photography A. Bassin EPICA BOOK 10 Europe's Best Advertising. Publisher Rotovision (September 1997) MM Diploma Award, final selection for the calendar 1998 entitled "Salt-works", Droga Portoroz, creative idea and design D. Tansek, photography B. Cvetkovic (from the project "Salt-works" 1996, 1997).
Cvetkovič resides in Ljubljana.
Artistic work Initially, his approaches had evolved intuitively, then there was a cognition process of photography and art, involving analyses of conceptual art and minimalistic expression in Bauhaus modernism and avant-garde upgraded by Russian constructivism. In architectural photography he radicalized certain conceptual and functionalist approaches which can be compared with or are similar to those of the Bechers’ Düsseldorf school. He worked conceptually and was particularly devoted to defining spatial light and transmitting and upgrading the form or architecture of space. In spite of his highly objective aspirations in this period he could be considered a constructivist.
In his late period he established a philosophical idea of Non-Space as a totality of abstract space. In the fine art sense he transformed space into an abstract expressive image of the (suprematist) plane as the ultimate transformation of three-dimensional space into nil or zero dimension. Therefore, he discovered his artistic ambitions in the field of abstract expressionism.
Bauhaus period In his early studies, Cvetkovič found himself mainly occupied with the issue of the complexity of light and image, its disintegration into layers with various depths of field, in order to envisage a new image and to formulate or to frame it on the Bauhaus modernist plane.
In this period (1990-1995) he dealt with minimalistic and conceptual topics summed up in projects: Rocks and Water, Light within Seashells, Waves and Series of Seawater Abstractions. His projects continued with almost abstract cycles in the Bauhaus constructivist manner: Lux Plantarum (1997) and Light of Shadow – Drawing of Form (1998), both exhibited in Ljubljana.
This was the introduction leading to his most complex opus of industrial photography, still defined by the Bauhaus spirit and undertaken at the industrial premises of the Akrapovic firm in the years 1997 and 1998, continuing in 2002 and 2003: Tubes, Chinese Cosmos, Abstractions and Bauhaus . His final creation in this field was in 8x10 inches LF and was named Locomotives (2005).
Architecture: from minimalist structuralism to deconstructivism In architectural photography, Cvetkovič has made his way from structuralism to deconstructivism. At his early stage of involvement in photography, Cvetkovič had been posing himself the question of the construction of the constructivist frame on the one hand and on the other the problem of defining or constructing light within space.Cvetkovič develops his concept in his text for the catalogue "The Construction of Light – Sequential Constructions of the Space Planes: the Spaces of Spaces" publisher Mestna galerija, Thus, his architectural photography is minimalistic, rationalized and architecturally schematic. A reading of light is defined by the architectural shell itself. With this approach he autonomously developed modernist functionalist architectural photography and only in this way did he find himself side by side with the developing Düsseldorf school.
Old industrial architecture – archeology of light His first exhibition The Old Power Station in Ljubljana in 1992, was the first in this series, as well as the continuation of his project of old industrial buildings, namely Rog and the old brick factory of Ljubljana, which were exhibited in 1997 under the title Past Spaces. In the old power station Cvetkovič did not only make a so-called archeological inventory of the building, he also introduced the archeology of spatial light. He had researched light, as one of the critics Catalogue for the Fine Arts Exhibitions "Past Spaces", European Cultural Month, Ljubljana 1997, put it. In Past Spaces (1997), he had already presented architecture by sequencing the framing and "new" construction of the perspective by overturning the areas or planes of a picture similar to Russian constructivism.
Concept of symmetry and minimalism – Plečnik˙s Marketplace Radical in his concept, Cvetkovič was presented as an architectural photographer in the full complexity of his work in 1996, with his exhibition of Plečnik's Marketplace. In this exhibition he broke with the contemporary post-modernist tradition of representing architecture in Slovenia by replacing it with a functionalist overview. The scheme and the structure of the photographic work were outlined by him during the period of the renovation of Jože Plečnik's buildings. He shaped the Plečnik's architecture in doctrinaire typology by using the symmetrical minimalist concept, perspective-corrected images of the architectural structures, consistently outlined only by a diffused non-shadow light, which became the light of an object itself. This was the method the photographer strictly implemented during the period coinciding with the emerging Düsseldorf school. The whole exhibition took place at the Municipal Gallery of Ljubljana and was accompanied by the artist's monograph.Artist monograph "The market in Ljubljana designed by the architect Jože Plečnik", Ljubljana 1996, Rokus, . Text on photography "Multifaceted photographs of Branko Cvetkovič" written by Aleksander Bassin. Other texts on architecture by Asja Krečič, Peter Krečič. It paved the way for him to the most important cultural and professional Slovenian institutions, whilst he became distinguished with his interpretation of the architecture of their home buildings, their reconstructions and renovations. The collections of his photographs are represented as the core of the archives of the National University Library, Cankar Cultural Centre, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall, Slovenian National Opera and Ballet, Municipal Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, the Institution for Public Health, House of Constitutional Law, etc.
Plečnik˙s National University Library in Ljubljana Cvetkovič completed extensive work on Plečnik's architecture of the National and University Library of Slovenia (NUK) in the years 1998–1999 and 2003. The originals were taken by large format 4x5 inch and 13x18 cm Sinar P2 and Hasselblad 6x6. The lead and the principle of the photography and composition are based on the Düsseldorf school doctrine. In some cases sequential photographing was also taken into account. Truly exceptional is the photograph of the main entrance façade; for the first time in the history of the NUK this is seen and established in one perspective-corrected picture, actually amalgamated from three vertically positioned originals in 13x18 cm format. Because of the narrow street and the extent of the façade, this had hitherto been an unattainable, a constant enigmatic frustration never to be overcome.
Cvetkovič has approached Plečnik not only in his creative aspiration, but also ethically in his unconditional aspiration to perfection. In each of the photographed spaces his interest was also in its symbolic meaning. For him, in his picturing the Plečnik's architecture, the basic message was the fine art transmittance of architecture with the sequential construction of the planes with the typical reduction of the light and the maximal objectivistic and plastic construction of the space, thus positioning the Plečnik's sequencing of the classical, almost renaissance architectural space.
Opera House in Ljubljana Almost the contrary has been achieved with Cvetkovič's architectural photography in his introspective survey of the Slovenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Ljubljana as a paradigmatic amphitheatric space. This extensive work was accomplished in the years 2002, 2003, 2007, 2007-2011.
In 2004 Cvetkovič exhibited his new de-constructivist series entitled Deconstruction of Light – Sequential Constructions of the Space Planes: the Spaces of Spaces, for short.Aleksander Bassin, director of the City Art Museum Ljubljana, Catalogue of the exhibition. The oeuvre started to emerge during the renovation of the Auersperg palace and Turjaska palace. The author departed from the Düsseldorf school presentation. He radicalized the classical upright perspective; he controlled the architectural image by framing it in the sense of Russian constructivism, thus opening up the way to abstraction. This transformation enabled Cvetkovič to be liberated from the classical principle.