Documenting the Balkans with Nick St Oegger

Nick St Oegger is a documentary photographer whose been on assignments in different locations around the world. He is one of the freelancers who work with Rob Pinney over at Point 51 magazine. Nick talks to us about his trips in post-communist states and documenting the Balkan region. He is not the sort of person to just fly in and take photos, instead, he takes the long approach and lives in the country and even learns their languages too.

Nick is one of those guys who just wanted to go see and feel life for himself. After visiting the likes of Montenegro and Croatia he decided one day he needed to visit Albania. Despite advice and friends saying there is nothing there, he caught a bus and 8 years later he’s still there. We go through a little about what’s going on but also future projects and his vision.

In this one we discuss:

talking with strangers
languages
handwritten notebooks
image sharpness
gear
covid
hydropower dams
displacements of people
lack of interest in Balkans
Point 51 + freelancing

Random questions

I had a lot of fun with Nick and hopefully, you can tell from our laid back conversation. We even came up with a slogan or new maxim to use for him and that was before he went through our random questions.

Quote

“the biggest way I’ve disarmed people and gained people’s trust in Albania was speaking Albanian”

Links

Website – http://www.stoeggerphotography.com/portfolio/#1

Point 51 – https://point51magazine.com/nick-st-oegger

Friends of the show

For all your c41 developing needs – https://filmdev.co.uk/

Large format cameras, medium format & accessories – https://chroma.camera/

Great and affordable zines from Static Age – https://www.staticage.co.uk/