BOSNIA: A Text By Tim Butcher
Barry Salzman’s images of Bosnia, where I was a war correspondent in the 1990s, got me thinking.
I got a strong feeling when looking at those Bosnia landscapes that I was looking through tear-stained eyes, the vaporous nature of the focus, the ‘there but not there’ sense of detail. It was as if the image captured the filter of grief and terror felt by so many when trying to visualise the terrain around Srebrenica, the natural reaction to create a barrier between the viewer and the horror. I found that extraordinarily powerful; as if Salzman, the photographer, carried some of the emotional burden of bearing witness to genocide.
Yet it was at the same time uplifting, encouraging even. No matter the instant when tears flow, when the view swims, the detail blurs, the one certainty is that those tears will eventually stop flowing, they will dry, emotion will ease. So I took comfort from your art in that it reminded me of the beauty below, the natural beauty that will one day remain, an eternal beauty that has the power to restore, to overcome the corruption of a genocidal instant.
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TIM BUTCHER is a best-selling author, broadcaster and journalist. He was a war correspondent for the UK Daily Telegraph. He covered the Balkan War extensively, including the Srebrenica genocide. His book Blood River was a number one bestseller in Britain, a New York Times bestseller, a Richard & Judy Book Club selection and was shortlisted for numerous prizes including the Samuel Johnson Prize.