The Abandoned Kupari Hotels

Thesis Research field trip.

My friend Veronika Salamun, whom I met on the first day of class is Croatian and did her thesis project on sites along the Adriatic coast at the confluence of war and tourisim. On visiting the Adriatic coast, I had the opportunity to visit her research sites and document its condition.

For the December midterm, Veronika created a visual essay. The fifth site, Kupari is just 8km from Dubrovnik and where I went for an afternoon:

In documenting the five abandoned and war-torn hotels, I decided that it would be fitting to create a visual essay of my own. This was done entirely on my iphone and I tried something new by shooting portrait because I was thinking of instagram and being a tourist while I was there.

My photography is still in turmoil. I’m having a hard time creating captivating images and while I wanted to shoot this whole trip in black and white, the colours of the water would be ruinned so I’ve flopped back and forth between the default setting and a desaturated look. I’m also a little sad that medium changed the layout of the website so that images can only be placed inline and it no longer allows for full-width or collages. That said, travel is the best time to be experimental. In the evenings I sometimes watch youtube photography tutorials that I try out the next day. Hopefully this will lead somewhere meaningful… In the meantime, take a look at the abandoned hotels below: