Boogie
Boogie was born Vladimir Milivojevich in Belgrade, the capital of what was formerly Yugoslavia. His friends gave him his nickname because he reminded them of a cartoon character. Boogie's father and grandfather were amateur photographers; his dad gave him his first camera. He used his first camera to capture the degradation of the city, protests, and portraits of skinheads. He won the United States' green card lottery in 1997 and moved to Brooklyn. He subsequently began to shoot the street life of New York with monochrome shots. [x]
Boogie's work fascinates me because some of it is slightly disturbing and graphic. He doesn't take pictures of what's pretty and what people would typically like; he gets the gritty and ugly. I'm amazed at his ability to capture most of the things that he does... how he could get away with getting up so close to some of what he does. Boogie has traveled all over the world to places like Bangkok, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Caracas, Tokyo, and more. He's shot drug addicts, the homeless and beggars, prostitutes, gang members, skinheads, and anything else you could think of. I don't think I would have the courage to get up close to a crack addict or a white supremacist skinhead.
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| Christina is a 46 year old crack addicted prostitute who just got out of jail after serving 4 years on drug related charges. Brookly, NC, 2003. |
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| Martie, a crack addicted mother of 4, bathing her newborn. Brooklyn, NY, 2005. |
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| Kid playing with a gun in Zeytinburnu, a predominantly Kurdish and Arabic neighborhood, 2007. |
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| Skinhead |
“I don’t think my work is depressing - just real. My intention is never to provoke any specific reaction from the viewer. I can see how people think my work is dark, but I guess that is just a natural part of who I am. Maybe it is because I put my negative energy into my work. I don’t know. I just try to be honest and just observe." - Boogie [x]
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