Leica Artist Talk with Jošt Franko

In this artist talk, Jošt Franko traces the development of his photographic practice from his earliest long-term documentary projects to his more recent collaborative and research-based work. Moving through projects including Widow, Shepherds, Farming on the Frontlines, Cotton Black, Cotton Blue, the newspaper trilogy, and Nicht Fallen, Franko reflects on questions of labour, displacement, conflict, memory, and the politics of representation.

The talk considers how his approach has gradually shifted from photographing communities toward slower, more collaborative forms of storytelling that incorporate text, oral histories, archives, found materials, and moving image. Across the projects, Franko returns to the importance of duration, revisiting places and relationships over many years, and to the question of what remains after an event has disappeared from public attention. The talk ultimately asks how photography can engage with histories and experiences that exist alongside, and often outside, dominant narratives.

BIO:

Jošt Franko (b. 1993, Ljubljana) is a visual artist, photographer, and assistant professor of photography whose work explores migration, forced displacement, labour, memory, and the long-term consequences of conflict. Working across photography, text, moving image, archives, and collaborative practices, he focuses on overlooked and marginalized histories and communities.

Franko is a recipient of a TED Fellowship, multiple Pulitzer Center grants, and The Aftermath Project prize. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Finnish Museum of Photography, Kunsthaus Graz, the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM), the U3 Triennial of Contemporary Art, and the Art Encounters Biennial. He holds a Master’s degree from Goldsmiths, University of London.