Eva Sajovic

On moving from Slovenia to the UK, Eva Sajovic gave up her career in law and focused on becoming a photographer. Her intimate pictures, in many cases accompanied by written accounts, are intriguing and visually compelling.

Having carried a torch for photography for years, it wasn’t until she moved that she found the courage to switch careers.

“Photography has been a part of my life since I was young", she says. "My mum had an old Russian Zenith SLR I’d try and use, but with little success, as I didn’t have any guidance. Whenever I travelled I would carry a camera, but my family wanted me to study law, so I dedicated myself to that instead. I did a law degree in Slovenia, then a year’s post grad course in Paris, followed by a year in Holland. Then I worked for the Ministry of Culture in Slovenia for a short time.

"While doing my masters in Holland, I met the man who was to become my husband. He’s from London, so I came here with him and decided to drop law and take up photography. Although I switched, I guess you could say that elements of my legal background can be seen in the social justice and human rights focus of my photography.

“I have worked in photography and film for the last three years. I did an art foundation at Morley College, and then spent a year at the London College of Communication doing photography, after which I went to St Martins, where I did graphic design, specialising in audio visual presentations.



Audio visual presentations

“AV is widely misunderstood. Clients may not know if their budgets can run to it, or what it might look like if they commissioned it, so if you’re establishing a professional practice where you offer AV, it has to be explained. I show my films and talk about them to get across what I have in mind, but I have to explain that it is sound and film, and not necessarily the extensive form of film. A lot of the time it is concept based - not necessarily a scripted film.

“I have reservations about shooting moving images on digital, because it doesn’t seem to give you the same colour - it’s much flatter and you don’t see that much shadow detail. Maybe if I had a better digital camera, my experience would be different, but at the moment I shoot on 16mm film stock. "I produced a film for the 10th anniversary of Space, a Dalston-based charity that provides art therapy for children, using digital camcorder footage, as well as taking stills.

“I’ve lived in Elephant and Castle since I moved to London. I’ve gone from not liking it much, to getting involved in the community and enjoying the sense of belonging. I felt strongly about the proposed £1.5 billion regeneration of the area, and I wanted to record it as I knew it, before it changed forever. I started taking pictures and talking to people, and it got
me thinking about how I could finance a more comprehensive project. I took my photographs to the people behind the regeneration scheme and they were interested, so it became a paid commission. The work is going to be exhibited, some time during the summer."



Going freelance

Sajovic went freelance on graduating in September 2007. In the same year, she won an MTV award for a channel ident, a merit in the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum’s Photographic Awards, and a D&AD award for photography; and has exhibited her work extensively, both in the UK and abroad.

“I became self employed due to the growing momentum of commissions", she says. “I completed a business plan, which helped me to understand how much I was spending and how much I would need to charge to support myself. I work from home, and have a studio, and in the beginning I calculated rates by researching jobs on the internet.

“I shoot mainly on film, using a Hasselblad 500 with an 80mm lens. Shooting this way is more expensive, and there’s a cost implication for the client, but there are still clients that don’t mind that. I’ll work digitally if that’s the client’s preference, but given the choice and with personal projects, I’d rather not.

"My interest in the subject of womens' imprisonment led me to contact charities to explore how I could get access to prisons. Everybody told me it would be difficult, but I got lucky when I contacted the charity Women in Prison, as it was just starting a magazine and needed a photographer.

“One of its staff later went to work for Islington Council, and got in touch with me about a job there. Then a fellow student asked me to show my work to the director of Ian Simpson Architects, which led to a further commission. When I showed my work to her, we talked about it and she understood why I choose to shoot on film rather than digital.



“It was necessary for me to hire lights as the brief was to produce a book of 90 employee portraits in the London and Manchester offices. Each double page spread of the book features one digitally shot image taken in a studio, juxtaposed with a photo shot on film depicting more about the employee's personality. For this picture, I encouraged them to decide where they wanted it taken, and what they wanted in the shot.

“I chose this combination of digital and film portraits due to time constraints, and also because I like the contrast of digital portraits in the sterile studio environment with the richer, more individual, portraits shot on film.

“I love the darkroom, although I'm happy working on the Mac. With computers though, you don’t get to touch the photos, and it’s a different experience when you’re just moving levels on screen. I’ve produced a few one-off books using my graphics background and I designed my website too. The majority of site visitors are people who know my work already, and as yet I haven’t done much promoting or marketing. I haven’t needed to or had the time, but I’m constantly growing, so that may be the next step.”

© 2008 F2 Freelance Photographer, published by EC1 publishing • site copyright notice here