I received a Honorary Mention at the Slovenia Press Photo 2010 competition. The jury, headed by Christopher Morris, awarded my photo from Thailand – the portrait of a small boy from Chiang Mai.

Last week I also participated in a workshop held by the famous VII agency, under the mentorship of Ron Haviv. The workshop was part of the Slovenia Press Photo festival. It certainly gave me loads of motivation for new projects. During the workshop we had to photograph a story in Ljubljana, any kind of story. I chose the archaeological excavation grounds, where a friend of mine works. I tried to capture how these guys get absorbed into their work by using multilayer technique. I was on the site for only a couple of hours, so I definitely plan on returning and continuing the series.
The workshop gave me some great ideas and also helped me remember the valuable lesson that good stories are all around us!

Gloss, a slovenian fashion & lifestyle magazine, each year selects about 15 young, talented people who are each making a difference in their field. Poets, designers, athletes, musicians - creators of all kinds. People with high goals and the passion to reach them in Slovenia and abroad.

This is the fourth time I’ve had the privilege of photographing these young talents. As each comes with their own brand of creativity, the photos needed to reflect that and hint at their area of expertise.
Everything was shot over a couple of days in Kolosej and Arena in Ljubljana. I love the outcome, the photos really turned out great. And I also think they succeed in giving away glimpses into each of the young talents creativity.

You can also view photos in full-screen gallery on my website!

Nina Ivanisin, actress

Mitja Hojak, designer

Nina Strnad, singer

Ivan Skrt, pianist

Sasa Fabjan, designer

Ziga Zmavc, beatboxer

Kaja Avbersek, illustrator and designer

Glorjana Veber, poet

Nik Rajsek, dancer

Kaja Draksler, pianist and composer

Urban Belina, scenographer

Maja Tvrdy, badminton player

Matej Music alias Matthew Hoag, dj

Nina Slejko, painter

Client: Magazine Gloss
Photography: Ciril Jazbec
Assistant: Gregor Grbec
Journalist: Agata Rakovec
Location: Kolosej & Arena Ljubljana

Mercator is the largest slovenian commerce chain with hundreds of outlets – from small grocery stores to enormous hipermarkets. They are big. Really big. And as befits a big multinational company, they also have their own internal magazine, called »Časomer« (a very loose translation would be something along the lines of »measuring time«). It’s a bi-monthly magazine for all present and retired employees of Mercator. And keeping up with its employee-centric spirit, are also the covers!

Each cover of the magazine features a Mercator employee. This year they were done by me - in a single day we’ve shot the covers for the whole year, in Mercator stores in Ljutomer and Maribor, the latter also being the winner of Mercator’s best store competition. The photoshoot took place during the working hours, so you can imagine how lively everything was. And fun. Could it be any different, when the store manager treated the team to two big boxes of donuts?

Photography: Ciril Jazbec
Client: Mercator
Make-up: Ana Lazovski
Assistant: Gregor Grbec

There is only one printed magazine in Slovenia, that focuses exclusively on marketing – Marketing Magazin. Working for the magazine pretty much means you get to meet most of the great people in that field. And that’s what I love – taking photos of people who love their job and are good at it. Being a regular collaborator on Marketing Magazin resulted in a very nice collection of such photos. Here are my favourite ones, recently done for MM. You can see more of them in the printed edition. Oh, and don’t just look at the photos – the magazine is a great read, too!

Robert Hernec, Europlakat

Lea Pisani, Personal image consultant

Tomaž Arh, Droga Kolinska

Nina Zidar Klemenčič, Zidar & Klemenčič

Tanja Mezga, Gigodesign

Croatia, our neighbour country, was having presidential elections about two weeks ago. Bruketa&Žinić, a great croatian advertising agency, approached the team behind First-Finger.com, a project I’m involved with. They liked our work, and in the end invited me to collaborate on the campaign they were doing for Ivo Josipović, a presidential candidate of SDP political party. It’s not everyday you get to photograph a (possible) president, so I gladly accepted.

The job included a photoshoot for all the materials (billboards, posters etc.) as well as following and photographing Ivo Josipović for 15 days, during his months-long tour around Croatia. With great people on the team, there was no way the photos could turn out anything else but great! To say that it was an amazing experience would be an understatement. This was simply my craziest project ever – in a very positive way!!

Ivo Josipović WON, so in the end I really did get to photograph a president! I am going to publish photos from following and photographing Ivo Josipović in next weeks.

Client: SDP - Ivo Josipović
Agency: Bruketa & Žinić
Production: Komakino
Photography: Ciril Jazbec
Assistant: Uroš Žuraj

I spent the last days of 2009 in London. Here’s a series of photos from that vivid city. Each was shot using a 35mm lens, which is fast becoming my favourite, together with my 50mm. Each new year is also an opportunity for new plans and ideas. I’m thinking of enrolling in the College of communication and getting my Master’s degree in Photojournalism and Documentary photography.

Yesterday, as I was driving home from Ljubljana, I saw a line of people with torches. The sight reminded me of the traditional torch-lit night march in the forrest of Udinboršt, organised each year by »Pod Krivo jelko« (»Under the crooked fir tree«) cultural-tourist society. Something I have heard about, but never attended. I immediately decided to change that and also photograph the event. So this year I went - together with my sister Katarina, who also has a photographic blog.

A lot of snow has fallen in the days before the march. And as the torches were lit, everything began to spark and glitter in the glow of the flame. It was like taking a walk through an enchanted forrest! As the story goes, a large crooked fir tree used to grow in the middle of the Udinboršt forrest. In the 18th century, the tree was the meeting place of bandits and outlaws. And underneath that tree they crafted their plans for their wicked ways. And that’s where we were headed! Unfortunately, the fir tree is now gone, but nevertheless, as we reached the place where it used to grow, the march felt like a living fairytale!

I tried to capture that feeling in the photographs. I’m pretty satisfied with them. I also included one photo by Katarina in the series – the 8th picture is hers.

I am certainly coming back next year!

Edit: as was noted in the comments, the tree was a meeting place for army deserters (meaning they did not want to serve in the French army), and they also had women and children in their ranks. So while they were robbers, they were also a community and they did play their part during the French occupation, fighting against the french soldiers. Just so I don’t distort history.

I’ve already posted a few photos from my August trip to Thailand. Now there’s a new gallery on my website, with more pictures from my visit to that amazing country. Check them out on my website. And don’t forget to view them in full-screen! Most of the pictures were shot in and around the city of Chiang Mai, about 700km north of Bangkok. Also, if you like or even fall in love with a particular photo in the gallery, prints are available. Drop me an email, I’ll be happy to give you more information.

1.1.2010, London

Let me say a big thank you to all of you following and commenting on my blog! I wish you all a very happy New Year, and may your next 365 days be full of colours and good light!

Slovenian advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi invited me to collaborate with them on a project for Telemach, one of the largest slovenian providers of internet and digital TV. The brief: five different motives with a well-known slovenian actress Tjaša Železnik. Telemach is coming out with some improved services, so they wanted each of the five motives to represent that. Working with Tjaša was great, I really enjoy the photoshoot - it was both fun and productive. I am very satisfied with the end result, the boys and girls at Saatchi&Saatchi did a great job at turning the photos into print ads. One of the advertisements will hit the media in January, so I can’t publish it quite yet. But I really enjoy seeing the rest of these ads in action!

Photography: Ciril Jazbec
Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi
Client: Telemach