Marko Djurica

Marko Djurica

Based
Belgrade, Serbia
Born
Belgrade, Serbia
Status
Photographer
“My first memory of photography comes from when I was five years old. My father brought a Leica M6 home and it was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen.”

Beat

I cover daily and general news, sports, conflicts and feature stories around the world.

One Shot

. MITROVICA, Kosovo. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
A Kosovo Serb priest walks with a U.N. policeman through a demolished church at a graveyard in the ethnically divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica.
“I like this picture because the policeman looks so menacing compared to the priest; the dichotomy of the image really struck me. It was great to see this picture published so widely.”

Profile

My first memory of photography comes from when I was five years old. My father brought a Leica M6 home and it was the most exciting thing I'd ever seen, so I stole it from him and hid it with my toys.

My father was a professional photographer who worked for various news magazines in the region. I watched him doing his job and then watched my friends' dads doing theirs. It made me realise that my dad loved his work and was totally fulfilled, while the others wore suits and ties and looked bored. My father taught and inspired me.

One of my first assignments was covering the former Serbian President Milosevic when he was about to be arrested at his home and transferred to the Hague tribunal. His supporters were in front of his house protesting 24/7, and after 20 days it no longer received much news coverage because you never saw him. I went down with one roll of film (36 frames) and nobody expected him to show up, so I shot some pictures of his supporters with banners and Serbian flags. I had about 15 frames left in my camera when he suddenly turned up. I was the only photographer there and I knew this was really important so I used all my remaining frames to take pictures of him. After that, I just walked away – I didn’t want to look back at the possible pictures I could have taken.

The assignment that left the biggest mark on me is probably an embed I did in Afghanistan with the U.S. Marines in Nimroz Province in 2009. It was so different to anything I had ever done before.

Goran Tomasevic is the photographer I respect the most. For the last ten years he has been the best in photojournalism.

Behind the Scenes

. Brnjak. Darko Vojinovic
Reuters photographer Marko Djurica photographs Kosovo Force Major General Erhard Drews (centre) close to the closed Serbia-Kosovo border crossing of Brnjak.
. Belgrade, Serbia. Andrej Isakovic
Djurica runs with his camera during coverage of an anti-gay protest in downtown Belgrade.