River Sava, Belgrade, Serbia. February 2004.

Belgrade is a hard place to like in many ways. I arrived on the overnight train from Budapest with no Serbian money – actually it was still called Yugoslavian money at the time – to find there were only two ATMs in the Serb capital, and both of them were in the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel on the other side of town from the train station. I had to walk to the Intercontinental on a winter morning at -10ºC, feeling pretty grumpy. It turned out to be a quite wonderful walk though.

Karadjordjeva, Belgrade, Serbia. February 2004.

The early morning walk through Belgrade proved to me, yet again, the importance of being able to put out of your mind feelings of frustration or anger and focus on where you are and why you’re there. The light was fabulous and everywhere I looked I saw pictures. Snow always helps with black and white, of course. It gives your pictures a built-in impact.

River Sava, Belgrade, Serbia. February 2004.

The distinct geometry of the world we inhabit becomes very obvious from an elevated vantage point. Sometimes this seems like cheating to me, after all, I want to capture the world the way I see it, not the way it looks from some unusual perspective. It’s why I don’t use short or long lenses, and why I’m not interested in macro or aerial photography. In this case I was walking up a bridge ramp and this is simply what I saw looking over the edge – so I think it’s allowed.