Jelena Perać

LIK ŽENE NA FOTOGRAFIJAMA MILANA JOVANOVIĆA
IZ ZBIRKE MUZEJA PRIMEWENE UMETNOSTI U BEOGRADU
THE IMAGE OF WOMAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS BY MILAN JOVANOVIĆ
FROM THE COLLECTION IN THE MUSEUM OF THE APPLIED ART IN BELGRADE

Journal 1/2005 (Museum of Applied Art), pages 55-68

UDC:
069.51:77.041.5(497.11)
77.041.5(497.11)“18”
391.2(497.11)“18”

Summary:
The process of acceptance of photography in Serbia was almost concurrent with the same process in Europe, thanks to the similar social conditions. For the members of a young bourgeois class that rose in both social and economic terms during the 19th century, it served as another, quicker and more accessible, means to emphasize the newly acquired status and wealth. From the seventh decade of the 19th century, in all larger towns in Serbia the professional photographic studios had been open, which primarily produced portraits, as the most wanted and the most profitable, while other genres were only in the making.

The most prominent studio in Belgrade at the turn of the centuries belonged to the court photographer Milan Jovanović. In taking the photographs of the members of bourgeois class, which constitute the larger part of his opus, Jovanović had to follow their requests that were largely defined by current social conventions. Thus, the portrait photographs by Milan Jovanović represent a document of its own kind, speaking about urban life and social relations in Serbia at the turn of the centuries. In this essay they served as an illustration for the research into position of woman in Serbia of that time.

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