On 29 and 30 October 2026, Paraćin, Serbia, hosted the fifth edition of the SARMATES International Festival of Photography, and our member Stefan Kocevski was part of the programme with a solo exhibition of concert photography. The exhibition opened on 30 October, the second festival evening, at the Regional Innovation Startup Centre (RISC), before an audience of photographers, festival participants and lovers of photography.
The exhibition brought together black-and-white photographs from concert performances, made since Stefan took up photography in 2023. His approach calls for direct observation and a quick response to what happens on stage: the light, the movement, the gestures and expressions of the performers are caught in moments that can neither be arranged in advance nor repeated. Several visitors were surprised to learn that these frames come from an author with only three years of experience in photography.
Among the guests at the opening was the British photographer Tim Pile from Birmingham, who looked through the photographs with interest and talked with Stefan, while the local television station Kanal M recorded a report with him about the festival.
SARMATES, named after the ancient settlement that stood on the territory of today’s Paraćin in Roman times, this year brought together five exhibitions for the first time, installed in the “U prolazu” gallery of the town library, in the Cultural Centre, in the foyer of the Paraćin Theatre, in RISC and in the Regional Museum. Alongside Stefan, the exhibitors were Tim Pile, Slavoljub Radojević from Kragujevac and the students of the Art Team photo group’s photography course, and the traditional photo safari was held on the second day. The festival is run by Bojan Petrović Bokac, and the opening was also attended by Branislav Brkić, president of the Photo Association of Serbia.
On his return, Stefan described the visit as an excellent experience: well-attended exhibitions, the warm hospitality of the organisers, positive comments on his exhibition and many new acquaintances.
This is another international presentation for Stefan after his solo exhibition in Bor in June 2025, and this summer he also showed his work at the joint exhibition with Naum Cvetkovski at “Ministerstvo” in Kumanovo. The club’s cooperation with the festival continues: last year, at SARMATES 4, Viktor Trajkovski presented his series “Street Life”.
Photo Club Kumanovo congratulates Stefan on a successful exhibition and thanks Bojan Petrović Bokac and the SARMATES team for the invitation and their hospitality.
From the opening of the exhibition:
From the festival:
