Dražen was with Lider from day one, active in the initial team that founded it. Until then, he had not worked in newspapers. He went to a kiosk and bought all foreign and domestic business publications to study and prepare for that adventure which lasted 16 years.
He skillfully transformed his knowledge and experience as an artistic photographer into the given frameworks of newspaper photography and constantly introduced improvements.
First as a photo editor, and later as a photojournalist, he dedicated himself entirely to shoots and enjoyed the challenges, avoiding possible traps of routine in that creative job. His portraits of people from the seemingly dull business world had a recognizable form of imaginative poses in which he always drew out the best from them.
I have known him for 40 years. We first socialized at the School of Applied Arts and Design where we learned the first steps in photography, later collaborating on commercial and artistic projects, then at his photo studio, and finally, intensively at Lider. So I can say that besides being colleagues, we were lifelong friends.
He was a member of artistic associations such as ULUPUH and HZSU, and he founded one himself, the Photo Art Union, which gathered photography enthusiasts and published several photo monographs of neglected yet beautifully fascinating regions of Croatia. He was a mover, a visionary, and a motivator in that.
Our photographic scene has lost a great man, great in stature and great in spirit.
Good light to you!
