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Social Differentiation and Construction of Elites in Belgrade Studio Photography
portraits, ideas of beauty and representation of both photographer and clients meet
and they do not necessarily coincide. Particularly until the turn of the twentieth
century and the stabilization of the local photographic market in Belgrade and Ser¬
bia, the photographer’s gaze was rather trained to aesthetics developed in western
European art. That is because most of the cultural and art workers of that period
received their formal education at art schools and universities in Vienna, Munich,
Paris, or St. Petersburg (see Trgovéevié 2003: 60).
Analyzing Milan Jovanovids photographic opus, we should ask what discourses
have shaped his view of the photographed subjects. He was born into a family of art¬
ists and photographers. His father ran a photographic studio in Vrsac, which at that
time was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where Jovanovi¢ and his broth¬
ers learned how to run the business. Milan Jovanoviés older brother Paja Jovanovié
became one of Serbia’s most famous realist painters. Particularly his historical com¬
positions were believed to capture a collective memory of Serbian society and the
nation. Milan Jovanovi¢’s educational history is not elaborated well. However, it
has been recorded that he had followed his older brothers, who had both studied
at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and later worked in Vienna, Munich, and
Paris.’ After a series of sojourns to those cities, Milan Jovanovié moved to Belgrade
in 1887 and opened up a photographic studio with the help of his family (see Malic
1997). He was professionally active until the outbreak of World War I. In 1893 he
was appointed court photographer of the king of Serbia and three years later also
court photographer of the prince of Montenegro. Milan Jovanovi¢’s clientele was
the rising Serbian bourgeoisie. It was they who formed the political and economical
center of power and who were bringing forward new ideas of a modern nation-state
and society (Stankovié 2003: 69ff; see also Mali¢ 1997; Milojkovi¢-Djurié 2007).
Historical Background
At the turn of the twentieth century, Serbia was a relatively young state striving
for international recognition and establishment as a sovereign and independent na¬
tion. Being less developed than many other parts of Europe in many respects (weak
economy, an inefficient bureaucracy and absence of other functioning institutions,
an increasing urban-rural divide), it attracted some foreign capital* and know-how
that, for example, materialized in the construction of a rail network connecting
Belgrade and southern Serbia (Ni8) in 1884 and in the beginnings of industrializa¬
3 At the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Paja Jovanovié was a student of Christian Griepenkerl,
whose specialties were allegorical representations of classical mythology and portraits and also of Leop¬
old Carl Miiller, who was regarded as Austria’s most influential painter of the “Orient.” Jovanovié spent
a large amount of his working career in Austria and in Munich (see Subotié 2006). Svetislav Jovanovic
joined the Academy Julian in Paris, a private studio school for art students, after graduating from the
Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (see Brankovo Kolo 1900: 94-95).
4 According to Calic, half of the total investments into Serbian fabrics were by foreign capital by the
outbreak of World War I (1994: 175).
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