UKRAINE AT WAR: STREET ART, POSTERS + POETRY

I was in Kyiv, Ukraine, for three weeks in August 2022. I took photos, met artists, and gathered material for a book about popular art during the war. 

Ukraine At War - with a Foreword by Andrey Kurkov and an Introduction by Emma Mateo - will also include 18 new poems written by Ukrainian citizens from all over the country.

Ukraine At War (320 pages) will be out in 2023, and a portion of the sale price will go to charity to help Ukraine. 

Here is a cover sketch and a few page spreads (pages are not in order and may have changed slightly since this presentation was created). Below the slideshow is a video presentation, also created by me.

This square-format book (21 x 21 cm) is 320 pages. 

It contains 18 new poems, other verse, and approximately 450 images.

Emma Mateo wrote the Introduction, and the Foreword is by Andrey Kurkov - one of Ukraine's most celebrated novelists.

Ukraine at War will be distributed worldwide by Simon & Schuster.

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This important and beautiful  book is now available from Interlink Books.

It is distributed worldwide by Simon & Schuster.

Principal texts are in English and Bosnian language.

SPECIFICATIONS

10 x 8 inches (25 x 20 cm) / Softback

Full colour / 336 pages / 340 images / 2 maps

Introduction by Daoud Sarhandi

Forewords by Carol A. Wells,
Bojan Hadžihalilović, and Vehid Špehić

Afterwords by Rupert Wolfe Murray, Daoud Sarhandi, Alina Boboc, and Steven Gordon

English language, with Bosnian language translations of principal texts

Principal texts are by Carol A. Wells, an expert in political design. Carol is the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Los Angeles. Her Foreword places the posters within a historical context. A second Foreword is by Bojan Hadžihalilović, Bosnia's most well-known designer and one of the team behind the Greetings From Sarajevo postcards that have been exhibited worldwide.

Bosnian War Posters

BACK COVER TEXT:

Bosnian War Posters is a unique compilation of posters and political graphic design. It includes key archive photos from the war as well as new photos that put all the images in context today.

This book illustrates the entire conflict: from April 1992—when the first shots were fired in Sarajevo—to December 1995—when peace was agreed upon in Dayton, Ohio. Subsequent images depict the post-war reconstruction period and the hunt for war criminals.

The posters were gathered together in Bosnia and the former Yugoslavia shortly after the Bosnian war ended. They form the only large, pan-Bosnian collection of such material that exists, offering an eyewitness account of the war from the point of view of those who lived through all its horrors.

A unique pictorial study of the bloodiest European conflict since 1945, Bosnian War Posters will engage all those interested in graphic design, poster art, the tragic story of Yugoslavia, and the politics of nationalism in the modern age.

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What they say about this book

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“Handsomely presented and rigorously detailed, this is a captivating look at the art of propaganda … Filmmaker Sarhandi delivers an unusual history of the Bosnian War (1992–1995) focused on propaganda posters created and distributed by various players in the conflict … [He] lucidly explains the Balkans’ complex political, religious, and ethnic divisions; and sketches how the rise of nationalist parties in Serbia and Croatia contributed to the conflict. But the book shines in its presentation and analysis of the posters themselves … "

BOJAN HADŽIHALILOVIČ 
Trio studios, Sarajevo

“Bosnian War Posters is, without a doubt, one of the most significant books about the war in Bosnia. It is not a romanticised visual biography of the conflict, but an almost punky book about good and bad, love and death, the role of the media, and the truth.”

Bojan Hadžihalilović, A founder member of Trio studios, has contributed a new foreword to the second edition.

CAROL WELLS
Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG), Los Angeles

"The book is an important contribution to understanding the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It also shows the value of posters as primary historical documentation. Most poster books use graphics to illustrate their perspective; this one uses them to illustrate the complexity of the struggle and the fluidity of the sides—an important lesson for understanding social movements or wars, or anything else for that matter. The way the posters are used is exactly what CSPG is trying to do."


Carol Wells, the founder and president of CSPG, has contributed a new foreword to the second edition.

Principal contributors

DAOUD SARHANDI is a British writer and award-winning filmmaker. He developed the idea for and researched this book between 1997-1998 while living in Bosnia-Herzegovina. After many years in Mexico, he now lives in Tarragona, Catalonia, with his wife and two children.

CAROL WELLS is the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. She is one of the world's leading experts on political posters and graphic design. Carol has written a new foreword for this book.

BOJAN HADŽHALILOVIĆ co-founded the world-famous Trio design studio (now Fabrika) in Sarajevo in 1985 with his wife, Dada. Along with Lejla Mulabegović, they ran Trio throughout the siege of Sarajevo. Bojan has written a new foreword for this book. 

VEHID ŠEHIĆ is head of the Forum of Tuzla Citizens, Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

RUPERT WOLFE MURRAY is the British author of 9 Months in Tibet. For many years he ran aid projects in central and Eastern Europe. He funded the research of this book in the 1990s, and is collaborating again as an editor and project coordinator. (Email Rupert below.)

ALINA WOLFE MURRAY (née Boboc) is from Piatra Neamț in north-east Romania. She studied journalism in her home country before moving to Bosnia in 1996. She now lives in England. Alina assisted the author with research.

STEVEN GORDON, from Glasgow, first went to Bosnia in 1993 as a photojournalist to cover the brutal fighting in Mostar. Later he took the photos of most of the printed material in this book. Steve currently works for Mercy Corps, an international aid agency, and is based in Istanbul.

ASIM ÐELILIOVIĆ is a highly respected Bosnian visual artist and design teacher. His political graphics are well represented in this book. Asim created the stunning new cover image.

INTERLINK BOOKS is a Massachusetts-based independent publishing house that offers a global, cosmopolitan perspective.

OPEN ART ASSOCIATION is an award-winning cultural association based in Barcelona. Carolina Rivas is the cofounder and president. Open Art supported my work on this book.

ABC of Film & Video Editing

ABC of Film & Video Editing is currently undergoing a final edit. 

It will be available worldwide from Interlink Books in 2023.

ABC of Film & Video Editing

Practical & Creative Working Dictionary for Filmmakers & Film Editors

BACK COVER TEXT:

Every sphere of human activity has its vocabulary, and film editing is no different. The more than 550 creative terms and technical expressions defined and discussed in ABC of Film & Video Editing constitute the core of film editing language. Grasping them–as well as understanding how they connect–is essential if we wish to develop as film editors and filmmakers.

ABC of Film & Video Editing has been written for those new to the craft, as well as filmmakers and video creators of all strands, since everybody involved in audiovisual production—including those who appear in front of the camera—can benefit from knowing more about the way films are constructed. The author’s descriptions illuminate all aspects of what film editors do.

ABC of Film & Video Editing contains a multitude of professional tips and explanations, an appraisal of the important role women have played in the history and practice of film editing, and reviews of other good books on the subject. ABC of Film & Video Editing is the first complete and in-depth lexicon of the formal, informal and technical language film editors use.

British filmmaker Daoud Sarhandi has been a documentary film editor at the BBC in London and a multidisciplinary filmmaker and teacher in Mexico City—from where his feature films won many prizes all over the world. He now lives and works in Spain, where he continues to teach film editing and make award-winning films. He has more than 200 credits in ten categories at Internet Movie Database (IMDb.com).

Film Step by Step:
Methodology of Self-knowledge

This Spanish-language book was edited, designed, and published in Mexico by my company, Creadores Contemporáneos.

I also wrote the book's foreword.

Film Step by Step

Methodology of Self-knowledge

Cine paso a paso: metodología del autoconocimiento, by Carolina Rivas, represents a new and empowering way to learn about filmmaking. 

Originally published in Mexico in 2010, Cine paso a paso has been fully updated and expanded for a new edition published in 2020.

This important book, that has helped countless young filmmakers understand the practical as well as philosophical subtleties of their craft, can now be purchased in bookshops in Spain, Portugal and Brazil. It is available worldwide through Amazon and the publishing company, Autogafía, website.

Eye magazine

"Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture."

Eye magazine

From Mexico, between 2002 and 2012, I wrote a series of in-depth socially-themed articles (as well as blogs) for London-based quarterly Eye. These texts can be read on the Eye website, although they are not accompanied by the images curated by me and included in the original print versions. 

I consider the first article I wrote for Eye in 2002 to be the best and most important:

In any colour so long as it’s white: Why does Mexican advertising look nothing like the Mexicans?

Click here for other texts.