Fine Art nominee

The further I develop as a photographer, the more I realize that the majority of my new work deals with issues of identity (or lack thereof) and grief.
 
One’s certainty of who they are, where they belong or how they can contribute, are essential elements of being confident and self realized. After a career spanning more than three decades, once I retired I was lost in this city, in my personal relationship and most importantly within myself! The sentence “I am a dancer” (before “I am a man” or “I am a human”), which was my truth since I was nine, was no longer accurate. All of those years of dedication and honing my craft were no longer important or needed. 
Photography saved me as it gave me a voice, and a creative outlet to pour myself into.
These portraits certainly represent my fears, concerns and hopes for finding myself again and also connecting to others, which at the time of losing my job was not possible. I have discovered through this process of documenting grief and playing with the notion of “Who am I?” that we are all so alike and connected on a deep human level.

Aleksandar Antonijevic (b. 1969) is a Canadian fine art photographer, as well as an internationally acclaimed Principal Dancer with the National Ballet of Canada.
The artist extended his love of dancing from the stage to the camera, implementing the same principles of form and space into his passion behind the lens. Aleksandar Antonijevic deals primarily with the form of the human body. In his photography, the artist captures that unquantifiable dynamic between two beings, to reveal the inner conversation and to explore their meaning and impact on the viewer.
The artist was influenced by the form of ancient Greek monumental sculptures, the work of August Rodin and his ability to model the complexity and the elegance of the human figure; and the highly stylized and provocative contemporary photography of Robert Mapplethorpe.
Describing Aleksandar Antonijevic's body of work, Peter Clothier, art critic for Art News, wrote: "His images reveal to us, at first sight, the breathtaking beauty of the human form in its perfection; and the dramatic beauty of its ability to reach the absolute limits of its potential. He invites us into the most intimate places of the human anatomy and makes them a matter of pure line and contour."