The series ''Golden Scars" came as inspiration from Kintsukuroi, Japanese art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.

1. Z E L K O N E D I C
p h o t o g r a p h i c a r t i s
www.zelkonedic.com

2. Sometimes life flows seamlessly from one perfect moment to the next,
but often times we face struggles, insecurities and setbacks that leave
us broken. And we wonder what will become of the pieces.
We live in a world today that sees broken things as unworthy of our time,
unwanted interference in our lives. The art of repair something and in the
process making it more beautiful tells us that it is fine to have flaws. This
aspect involves the urge to express the profound esteem felt for
rejected, forgotten objects to give them the status of exclusivity and
nobility.
The series ''Golden Scars" came as inspiration from Kintsukuroi,
Japanese art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and
understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken. I
want to stimulate viewers to think, to make their own interpretations and
associations. About who and what we are and why we act the way we
do. My choice of medium for this series was 19th Century photographic
process wet plate collodion and 80 years old Eastman Kodak large
format camera.
My work mirrors back to us our own lives, when our understanding of life
sees broken things as unworthy. I rebuild the narrative and although the
reality is not the same, having been broken the reflection is a different
kind of beautiful.
Golden Scars

3. Untitled #1, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

4. Untitled #2, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

5. Untitled #3, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

6. Untitled #4, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

7. Untitled #5, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

8. Untitled #6, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

9. Untitled #7, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

10. Untitled #8, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

11. Untitled #9, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

12. Untitled #10, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

13. Untitled #11, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

14. Untitled #12, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

15. Untitled #13, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

16. Untitled #14, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

17. Untitled #15, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

18. Untitled #16, Wet plate collodion hand coloured

19. Zelko Nedic’s current photographic art works, created using the time consuming, process heavy technique
of wet plate collodion photography, pays tribute to his energetic career and deep passion for image
making. This new work, Dot.com, signifies all Nedic’s previous works be the foundation of what is to follow
and positions his current work right at the point of arrival – utilising the places he has travelled in his
personal (and public) story.
The presence of a contradiction between control and risk taking is apparent in most of Nedic’s works. A
teenage witness to the horrors of the Bosnian War during the early 90s, Nedic knows what it is to
experience a local hell and to escape into imagined havens. Through his collodion images and his earlier
works, many reminiscent in texture (but not as extreme in content) of Joel Peter Witkin’s macabre tableaux,
Nedic takes us to the edge and out into a world of restrictive possibilities.
In his wet plate collodion works, along with the usefulness of ambiguous narrative learned on set as a
professional hair and makeup artist/photographer on high-end fashion shoots, Nedic provides his audience
landscapes buoyant with symbolism and references to social norms obscured by absurdity. These
exquisite, hand coloured photographs reference numerous art styles and movements including the iconic
religious works of the middle ages, indigenous Australian dot paintings and early nineteenth-century
photographic tableaux. In addition, the images are steeped in a sense of pop culture with a Warhol
overtone, through the reproduction of something familiar.
Despite the long exposures and the chance style of Nedic’s choice of medium, the new series Dot.Com
consists of staged photographic tableaux that are highly directed, with tight choreographic decisions.
These artworks disrupt old discourses by creating worlds of intense theatrical erotica and isolated intimacy
within compositions we already know. This is evident in the work Forgiveness, a self-portrait classically
referencing Christian art. In this image Nedic places himself in the arms of a female saint – The Mother:
The innocence of his naked torso interrupted by gritty tattoo art and a golden halo behind the female saint
like a moon rising on darkness. Another image, Inner Scream, reveals Nedic’s penchant for feminist
undertones in his work. The subject appears to be in the act of ‘fisting’ – her mouth full of her own hand,
unable to speak, her hair covered with a veil and the scene set like a peep show crowned in a halo of stars.
Nedic’s latest works of wet plate collodion photography was a choice of medium to immerse him into his
storytelling. The instant world of digital photography was no longer enough and Nedic wanted to feel less in
control of the outcomes by cutting the aluminium plates, mixing the chemicals, sourcing props and
costumes and enduring the long exposures. The result is a series of photographic tableaux that reflects the
old Serbian saying that ‘life is a theatre’. For Nedic, photography is his stage.
His personal work has bought him to working in 2010 with Head On to document the Mardi Gras Festival.
His practice of documenting Sydney life saw him invited to present work for the Australian Centre for
Photography for the Subculture Slide night in March 2010. In 2011, 2014 and 2015 Zelko Nedic was one of
the finalists in Moran Contemporary photographic prize. In 2013 he was finalist in the prestigious National
Photograpic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery Canberra.

20. Exhibitions / Awards
2016
* Moscow International Foto Awards, Honorable Mention Award for series " Goldden Scars"
* Moscow International Foto Awards, Honorable Mention Award for single image " Invitation Of Distinction"
* Artist talk at Juniper Hall, Paddington
* Slide show at After Dark events, Cowra Regional Gallery
2015
* Solo exhibition Golden Scars at Gaffa gallery, Sydney
* Group Show at Juniper Hall, Paddington
* Fundraiser group show at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney
2014
* Group Show "Dead Ringer" at Exhibit No.9 Gallery, New York
* Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize finalist, Sydney
* Group Show at The Dispensary, Sydney
* Group Show White Shadows at Gallery Qahili, Prishtina
* Slideshow at Gallery 10x8, Sydney
2013
* NPPP , Finalist in National Photographic Portrait Prize . National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
* The Story of the Creative - group show, New York
* Naked Lens - group show at gallery Mercure, Sydney
* CCP Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, VIC
2012
* Sydney Fringe Festival exhibition " Retrospective "
* Head On Photo Feastival exhibition " Naked Or Nude", Sydney
* Group Show at Wonderland Galler, Sydney
* Group Show " Collodion Spirit " Wet Plate Tintype & Ambrotype Photographs at Gold Street Gallery, VIC
2011
* Head On - Portrait Prize Slideshow
* Head On Photo Festival - solo exhibition " The Bedroom Conception"
* Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize finalist, exhibition at State Library NSW
* Photography Master Cup - International Color Awards Nominee in "NUDE"
* Photography Master Cup - International Color Awards Nominee in " FASHION"
2010
* Head On - Portrait Prize Slideshow
* Australia's Top Emerging Photographers , Finalist in ARCHITECTURE
* Australia's Top Emerging Photographers , Finalist in PHOTOJOURNALISAM / DOCUMENTARY
* Exhibition " Nude on Tap " -TAP Gallery , Sydney
* Head On - The Mardi Gras Experience -Oxford St , Sydney
* Subculture Slide Night - The Australian Centre for Photography , Sydney
* Photography Master Cup - International Color Awards Nominee in " NUDE"
* Winner for Creativity work , Sunpellegrino Cafe Society
* Group exhibition PolyGallery, Sydney
.