Photography enthusiasts got a rare glimpse into the world of multiple award-winning Macedonian-Australian photographer, Biljana Jurukovski, on the opening day of Xposure International Photography Festival as she led them on a soul-stirring journey of self-discovery inspired by her passion for photography.
“If you accept new people, they will accept you too,” she said, while explaining how she found her true calling, photographing tribes from various cultures around the world. Elaborating on a landmark trip with the Surma people of southwestern Ethiopia in 2014, she said: “You have to completely strip yourself of all your titles. You could be a CEO or a top corporate manager, but nothing matters. What matters is being human and to show them the love and respect to be accepted as one among them.”
Jurukvoski, who moved to Australia with her husband at the age of 21 after growing up in her native Macedonia, said it was her upbringing in a traditional system that helped her get close to her work eventually. “As humans, we are like trees; everything starts with the roots. My roots have had a huge impact on who I am today.”
She said: “I was born and raised in Macedonia with a very traditional upbringing in a strong culture and that is deeply embedded in me.”
“Unlike Macedonia, Australia is very multicultural, and that led to a fascination for other cultures. But I kept asking myself: how do I showcase my cultural heritage and that’s when photography helped me. Photographing tribal cultures helped me find the answers to the questions I had been asking myself,” she said, while detailing the start of her passion-filled journey.
In 2014, Jurukvoski took “a step into the unknown” as a photo of a boy holding a Kalashnikov from Ethiopia’s Mursi tribe held her captive. “I decided to find these tribes myself and photograph them. This was the journey where fear was defeated by curiosity,” said the mum of two who travelled to West Africa when it was in the grip of the ravaging Ebola virus.
Jurukvoski, who has since focused her craft on taking moving portraits of different cultures around the world over the last seven years, described the time spent with Kazakh eagle hunters in the lap of Mongolia’s Altai mountains as a turning point in her life. “The outcome was magical and that’s where it all began,” said the photographer who has since travelled several times to Africa, fascinated by the beauty of tribes like Surma, Mursi, Arbore, Hamar and Karo, all of whom share a taste for body painting and extravagant nature-inspired decorations.
Jurukvoski’s collection of photographs in the series ‘Tribal Muses - The Avant-Garde of the Tribal World’ portray the accoutrements of the Surma tribe and can be viewed at Xposure 2022, which continues its run at Expo Centre Sharjah from 10am to 10pm until Tuesday, February 15.
