The Story: So my dad is a big time history buff including everything from Genghis Khan to Alexander the Great, the American Civil War to Napoleon and so on.  When we decided we were going to Sarajevo, we all decided that it was a priority that we visit the Latin Bridge: the historical span on which Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in 1914 by Serbian anarchist Gavrilo Princip, sparking a chain of events that led to the start of World War 1.  We got to the bridge in mid afternoon and the weather had held up.  I was surprised at how shallow the Milijacka River was and how pretty the bridge itself is.  There used to be a plaque with Princip’s footsteps embedded on one side of the bridge, but it was removed at some point when the Siege of Sarajevo start in 1992.

Why I Love It: I can’t believe this was once a scene of great chaos not once (WWI) but twice (Siege of Sarajevo), because this photo shows this scene to be not only peaceful, but beautiful!  I love the way the 16th century bridge takes the centre stage among the Viennese Hapsburg-Style buildings, and shows how truly stunning the historic city actually is (you should all visit.).

The Story: We paid a cab driver $20 to take us up Trebevic Mountain and hang out for a half an hour so that I could get some shots of the long abandoned, overgrown and graffiti-riddled bobsled and luge track from the 1984 Winter Olympics, that Sarajevo hosted.  There was no one else up there so we had the entire length to ourselves.  It was covered in moss and graffiti top to bottom and was eerily quiet – difficult imagine the roar of the crowds 30 years previous.  During the Siege of Sarajevo Serb snipers would bore holes in the track for their rifles and then abandoned after the war until people (like me) started discovering how cool and interesting the whole structure is.  Like modern art.

Why I Love It:  I love the colours in this one.  I love how vibrant the moss is in the foreground and the red and blue graffiti is in the background.  It was a sunny day but the forest was dense enough to block out the direct sun.  I like the story this one tells with the moss, fungus and graffiti overtaking the cement structure.  It’s like a complete transformation.