Worried. Wondering. Analytical. Complicated. Witty. Crazy fun.
Then suddenly the wind starts blowing in another direction and she becomes tender and emotional, insecure and sensitive. She starts to speak as if she has a lot of hidden poetry and tears in her. Then again, the wind starts blowing, this time more from the inside, and someone else’s voice comes out of her body. Everything becomes ridiculous, light and lively.
When she speaks, she uses a seductive intonation and a fine vibrato. Her gaze can be found high up, in a cloud, which goes all the way from frowning to smiling. I enjoy following the flow of her thoughts, the spoken ones as well as the others.
We were sitting in front of the Lazure Hotel while our story was being absorbed by the 300-year-old walls. That place, the former Lazaret, was once the sea gate of the city of Herceg Novi and the entire bay. In that setting we talked about internal journeys, about permissions and prohibitions to experience ourselves and what we do seriously.
About professions and passions. Parents. Origin. Growing up.
Jelena is a multi-talented artist, photographer, designer with an innate talent for starting new projects. And yes, she holds a master’s degree in legal sciences. She cooks like a pro. And soon she will become a body-oriented therapist. As far as I’m concerned, Jelena can turn anything into reality.
The most beautiful thing that she created is definitely her own brand that resembles her. Bora and bonazza. (original Bura i bonaca)
If life could mimic both phenomena at once, it would resemble her perfectly. They take turns, gently sliding into each other. From bora to bonazza and back.
The sea loves her. She understands all of its languages. Wherever she finds herself in the world, her sea is the same, and her eyes are full of colors and changes of the Big Blue.
She creates original analog photographs with handwritten messages. Her favorite product is a hand-painted box containing a calendar where each month has a different mantra. In that intimate, marine calendar with the smell of colors, we leave traces, symbols, verses. When we finish writing, we turn the pages and read the messages she left us.
Your life is the sea. Emerge.
Something in me is changing.
Freed from fears I fly.
I give you the sea because a calm harbor is both yours and mine.
Each postcard is a new dive into herself. It feels as if she’s writing her intimate diary and subtly sending us its pages. Her postcards turn into posters, pictures that we frame and place somewhere important.
Jelena likes to make portraits. How does she manage to capture the vulnerability and care in each of us, our child and adult, princess and devil? In a moment that lasts like an eternity writing down novels while she makes one simple click on her camera.
Recently, she created a contest when various women who wanted their portraits applied. Before getting their portrait done, they had to fill out a questionnaire and write a few important things about themselves.
It wasn’t easy to get naked in front of her. But that’s how things work. To know ourselves, we have to dive as deep as possible.
Jelena gives us the gift of the sea when we need it the most.
She reminds us to trust that everything will be alright.
“Throughout life we tend to move away from ourselves, and I believe that time spent by the sea helps us return to ourselves. The sea reminds us how important it is to silence our thoughts, listen to ourselves, follow our deepest desires and instincts. BORA is a turbulent wind from the land. Strong, dry and cool. Wind that suddenly changes direction and speed. It can appear suddenly, almost without any warning. BONAZZA is a completely calm sea, silence without wind, stillness. Each of us carries within us both the Bora and the Bonazza, life is woven from such moments…”
I have been following her online for years, swaying on those waves and longing for distant horizons, and I feel that every message in the photo is meant for me personally.
Don’t forget that now is the most beautiful.
Whenever I think that it would be nice to find out who the person behind this unique ode of love for the sea is, I postpone that moment a little longer and imagine that we must already know each other. That person must be someone awfully like me. I can almost hear her voice through the photos, I see her shadow and her reflection on the surface of the sea when bonazza takes over.
And here she is. Her name is Jelena Čejović Vukčević.
Her eyes speak even more vividly than the voice that follows.
The longer she talked about herself, the more I felt familiarity and recognition. The winter sun warmed us as new inspirations and topics emerged.
If you expected me to share with you what Jelena told me about herself, you were wrong.
As always, this time I want to lead you to the place where you can further explore on your own.
I’m leaving to get back to you, Jelena.
* The bora is a northerly to north-easterly katabatic wind in areas near the Adriatic Sea
** “Bonazza” is a term used in the Mediterranean to indicate the state of the sea when it is completely quiet and calm
