LINDA GRAHAM – THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE
photography exhibition
The exhibition will be opened by Jovan Ćirilov, a theatrologist, literate and one of the greatest endeavourers of the Serbian theatre and Serbian culture.
The Edinburgh Festival belongs to the group of prestigious international theatre festivals. It was established back in the 1947, at the time when Edinburgh did not have a permanent, stationary playhouse, and now this town has a dozen of professional playhouses and about 300 stages where one of the greatest and surely most important theatre festivals in the world takes place. These stages are where, every August, about 800 plays are performed, and the town of 500,000 inhabitants is flooded by a million visitors from all corners of the world, so in August Edinburgh looks like a mundane creative circus.
Our country is surely one of those that laid bricks in the very foundations of this festival – as early as 1953, the National Theatre from Belgrade took part in the festival programme with the ballet ‘The Legend of Ohrid’ (by S. Hristić) and opera ‘Boris Godunov’ (by Mussorgsky). Later, in 1964, the festival saw the performances of the National Theatre Belgrade once again, an opera and a ballet, while in the 1980s the production of ‘Women’s Orchestra’ (by Jean Anouilh) directed by Petar Zec was included in the official festival programme. In 1994 the Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme included ‘Miss Julie’ (by A. Strindberg) directed by Steva Žigon, in 1995 Rucante’s ‘Midge’ directed by Milenko Zablaćanski, and since 2000 the troupe The Balkans New Movement with the productions of Vesna Stanković ’A Dream about the Balkans, Fairy Ring’ (2001) and ’The Daugters of the Moon’ (2002). This successful series of appearances at this prestigious festival ended in 2003 with the performance of ’Silence’ (after Beckett) directed by Jelena Bogavac.
The participation of Serbian companies at the Festival since 1994 has been significantly supported by the European Art Foundation of Richard Demarco from Edinburgh.
Linda Graham has been working with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in close collaboration with Richard Demarco’s Foundation for years. She has been performing different roles at the festival: she has appeared as a producer, a designer, a host, and the official photographer – the role she is presenting herself in on this occasion.
Linda Graham was invited to come not only because of her success as a photographer and a designer, but also because she has had successful cooperation with all Serbian participants of the Festival since 1994, which was recorded by her camera.
Milan Zdravković
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Linda Graham (Stirling, 1951), works for different non-governmental organisations, public and private institutions in both Great Britain and abroad as an independent photographer. She focuses on reports, portraits, theatre, public relations and documentary work. In 1994, she started collaborating with Richard Demarco and Demarco’s European Art Foundation, providing assistance in preparations for the Edinburgh Festival. Ever since then, this partnership has been occasionally refreshed through collaboration in presentation of theatres and exhibitions.
In 1995, Linda Graham moved to Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where she tried to make a small contribution to the life in this town devastated by war through photography and public work, and by promoting art and participation in it.
Until her return to Edinburg in 1997 she had presented exhibitions, as well as musical and theatrical work of artists from America, Australia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, England, Georgia, Ghana, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, and, surely, Serbia.
Her favourite photography subjects are performers, politicians, statesmen, ex-statesmen, and many common people she meets on a daily basis.