ZAGREB - Night, the City, and Intimacy
Photographic Series
Intimate City
The “Intimate City” project is not merely a photographic series.
It is a vast story, told in multiple chapters, where each series reveals a new dimension of the same city, the same spirit, the same nocturnal breath.
This is Zagreb, but it could just as easily be Berlin, New York, or Paris.
Its universality does not arise from generic motifs, but from feeling, the kind that hovers between street and shadow, between gaze and absence.
The black and white palette is not an aesthetic of nostalgia, but the very core of expression.
What is too loud in color becomes a whisper in monochrome, a trace, a presence without explanation.
In the “Intimate City” there are no protagonists, everyone is in transit, silhouettes we recognize from dreams, former lovers we have never met.
The city is not a backdrop, but a living organism that breathes alongside those who inhabit it, whether sitting alone on a bench at 3 a.m., or disappearing down the stairs as the rain washes away their traces.
There is a woman here too, sometimes a muse, sometimes a voice, always a force that does not seek attention, yet carries it in every movement, in every glance over her shoulder.
This story does not wish to be deciphered.
Each photograph acts as a fragment of a letter never sent, a frame from a film that does not exist, yet we remember it.
What lies outside the frame is just as important as what is visible.
Light does not reveal, it calls, deceives, leads.
Shadow is not danger, but a space of freedom.
“The Intimate City” is not a document of its time, but a visual elegy of the unspoken.
It does not imitate life, but transforms it into a language, a quiet score that is not heard through ears, but felt through skin.
This is photography as poetry, as architecture of emotion, as an invitation to the viewer not to look, but to feel, not to interpret, but to listen.
“The Intimate City” was not created to impress, but to remain, in the eye, in the breath, in that brief moment when we are not sure whether something truly happened, or if we merely dreamed it.
Night Life
In the Night Life series, Matijević leads us into a Zagreb that belongs only to those who emerge after dusk. His photographs are not notes on entertainment, but portraits of a city at the moment it ceases to be mere scenery and becomes a living organism. Each image reveals a fragment of the night: the smoke of bars, the energy of the dance floor, the intimacy of a fleeting glance over a glass, or the theatricality of a street turned into a stage.
Instead of glamour, Matijević finds complexity. Night Bar captures collective pulsation, A Man with a Pipe presents an ironic figure that transcends cliché, while Funny Stories and City Boys unveil the comedy of togetherness. In Black Piggy and Tango, the body becomes the center of narration, a site where desire, exhaustion, and ecstasy coexist.
Matijević’s gaze is at once gentle and uncompromising: he does not moralize but allows the night to speak in its own language. Night Life is not merely a document of its time but an invitation to surrender to the contradictions of urban existence, to the night as both refuge and temptation, a space of freedom and of masks.
What makes these photographs particularly powerful is their ability to breathe universality into Zagreb. Each frame could be Paris, Berlin, or New York, and yet remains indelibly rooted in the local. It is within this tension between the global and the intimate that their true power lies.
Noir City
In Noir City, Matijević does not merely photograph the night, he orchestrates it. Each image functions like a frame torn from a lost reel of cinema, a film that was never made but somehow already exists in our collective imagination. Shadows lengthen, windows become watchful eyes, fences rise like silent barriers; the city itself transforms into both accomplice and stage.
His figures are not protagonists but apparitions: the fleeting silhouette in Escape, the suspended gesture of Outstretched Hand, the hushed movement of Quiet Steps. These are not moments resolved but questions posed. The cars, bicycles, staircases, and doorways, the vernacular furniture of the city, acquire a heightened charge, standing as metaphors for distance, secrecy, and desire.
What makes Matijević’s noir vision compelling is not nostalgia for the golden age of cinema, but his insistence on its relevance now. In works such as Rear Window or High Fence, one feels Hitchcock’s tension distilled into stillness; in Departure and City Cars, the existential vacancy of the contemporary metropolis. The photographs resist closure. They point toward stories but never tell them, offering fragments of a narrative forever deferred.
Noir City is less a documentation than a mythology of urban night. It reminds us that black-and-white is not absence of color but a field of infinite nuance, where shadow itself becomes subject. Matijević’s city is not simply seen – it is overheard, half-remembered, dreamt. In this lies its power: the recognition that every night hides a cinema of its own, waiting to be revealed only in fragments.
Secret City
In Secret City, the night transforms into a visual novel, a novel without an end, composed of fragments, hints, and whispered secrets. This is a world where shadows have their own life, and silhouettes and hidden traces become narrators. Here, photography does not reveal; it conceals. Each image hides more than it shows, and it is precisely in this indeterminacy that its power lies.
Characters move through the frame without names, faces vanish before we can recognize them, and gestures remain unfinished, like sentences broken mid-breath. Every composition opens a scene of enigmatic storytelling: The Client and The Woman with the Mask evoke a figure of secrecy that never allows full insight; Nightclub and Coming Car radiate threat and anticipation, while Girl in Smoke and In a Trance hover on the border between dream and hallucination. In An Enigmatic Call and Meet Me Inside, the plot is merely an allusion, and the most important elements remain off-frame, precisely in that emptiness, tension arises, paralyzing and attracting simultaneously.
Matijević does not create protagonists; he shapes enigmas. Smiles that become threats, hands that remain unreachable, spaces that are simultaneously sanctuaries and traps. The aesthetics of Secret City are seductive because they remain unresolved; erotic because they conceal; mystical because they resist final explanation.
Secret City is a letter without an address, a message in a bottle cast into the ocean of night, a call to the viewer to find it, read it, and never fully interpret it. Every photograph whispers its own story, but none reveal the whole truth; in that unresolved space, between shadow and light, between the known and the unknown, pure magic emerges.
Nocturno, Luminous Caress
The Nocturno and Luminous Caress series is an intimate homage to the night", its silence, its eros, and its meditative mystique. These photographs whisper; they approach the viewer like a breath on the skin. Light is not a spotlight but a candle; shadow is not a threat but a space for introspection.
Night here is not merely a physical state but a spiritual dimension. Thoughts slow down, and the body becomes more sensitive to unseen impulses. Nocturno and Luminous Caress is visual poetry of vulnerability, longing for closeness, and the beauty of fleeting moments. The photographs do not tell stories; they create a musical score, a sequence of notes in black and silver, to be played on the viewer’s inner instrument.
Velvet Nights
In Velvet Nights, night doesn’t fall, it rises. The sky closes over the city, but in that darkness, other spaces begin to open: half-shadows, glances caught in profile, breaths suspended in air. These photographs are not documents; they are traces, mirrored impressions from a world unseen, yet deeply felt.
The city here does not speak loudly. It whispers. In bars, corridors, behind the glass of limousines, quiet rituals of presence unfold. A woman in a white fur coat is not a symbol of glamour, but of vulnerability. A gaze that seeks no answer. A cigarette that doesn’t need an ending.
Inspired by the visual language of film noir and the philosophy of absence, this series moves between what is known and what is only intuited. In each frame glimmers a question: Who is watching whom? The camera is not an eye, it is a spirit. It doesn’t capture bodies, but their absences. It doesn’t illuminate, but deepens the dark.
Velvet Nights does not ask for belief. It invites you to forget the day. To slip into the softness of shadow, where time becomes porous, and meaning, only a possibility.
The Night Muse
A woman is a moment that lingers, a gaze that lingers in memory, a scent that quietly intoxicates. Within her converge all shades of beauty, power, and elusiveness. Her eyes are not merely mirrors of the soul, but vast universes aflame with passion and the mysteries of hidden strength. In every blink lies a promise of an untold story, one you wish to hear, yet never fully comprehend.
There is something almost supernatural in her presence. She enters a room and all pause not because of noise, but because of the silence she carries, thick, unspoken, and palpable. Like opium, she seeps beneath the skin, intoxicating without touch. Confident, yet tender. Mysterious, yet present. A femme fatale, yet soft as silk. Her sensuality is not a sin, but a language she speaks to the world.
In her eyes, the city at dusk is reflected, lights, passersby, secrets. Her gaze can be as gentle as silk, then sharp as a blade of desire. Words are unnecessary, a glance over the shoulder, the slow trace of fingers along a glass, the way she crosses her legs, all choreographies of her power.
Everything she does is done perfectly. Adjusting her hair, lowering her eyes, leaning in each gesture conscious, precise, perfectly timed. She walks through the night with shoulders back, a subtle smile, and a dress defying gravity.
She seeks no validation; the world admires her nonetheless. A woman who knows herself asks no permission to be desired, she simply is. There is no perfect description of a woman because she is a secret you cannot fully unravel. Each is unique, yet all hold the same key, the power to intoxicate. She is the moment that lingers long after she leaves, the scent that remains in the air, the lipstick stain on a glass, the shadow of a smile you can’t tell if it was real or imagined.
In the whirl of urban nights, where city lights blend with shadows, women become not only protagonists but enigmatic storytellers of their own tales. These two galleries present a subtle dialogue between the intimate and the public, the inner and the outer, the mystical and the real.
“The Night Muse” reveals the night as a space of quiet contemplation and hidden beauty, where female figures emerge as layered portraits of light and shadow, vulnerability and dreams. The woman becomes a muse, a silent guardian of secrets, an embodiment of power that does not shout but is felt in every glance, every spark of light illuminating a face.
These photographs do not merely seek to be seen, they invite deep looking, an understanding of the multidimensional female experience. They are an ode to secrets, strength, and transformation unfolding in every corner of the night.
Ultimately, “The Night Muse” form a poetic synthesis of night and womanhood, a space for the endless interplay of light and darkness, presence and absence, dreams and reality.
ZAGREB - Noć, Grad i intimnost
Fotografske serije
Intimni grad
Projekt „Intimni grad“ nije tek fotografska serija. To je jedna velika priča, ispričana u više poglavlja, gdje svaka serija otkriva novu dimenziju istog grada, istog duha, istog noćnog daha.
Ovo je Zagreb, ali mogao bi biti i Berlin, New York ili Pariz. Njegova univerzalnost ne proizlazi iz generičkih motiva, već iz osjećaja, onog koji lebdi između ulice i sjene, između pogleda i odsutnosti.
Crno-bijela paleta nije ovdje estetika nostalgije, nego jezgra izraza: ono što je u boji preglasno, u monokromiji postaje šapat, trag, prisutnost bez objašnjenja.
U „Intimnom gradu“ nema protagonista, svi su figure u tranzitu, siluete koje znamo iz snova, bivši ljubavnici koje nikad nismo sreli. Grad ne služi kao kulisa, već kao organizam koji diše zajedno s onima koji ga nastanjuju, bilo da sjede sami na klupi u tri ujutro ili nestaju niz stepenice dok kiša briše tragove.
Ovdje je i žena, ponekad muza, ponekad glas, uvijek snaga koja ne traži pozornost, ali je nosi u svakom pokretu, u svakom pogledu preko ramena.
Ova priča ne želi biti dešifrirana. Svaka fotografija funkcionira kao fragment pisma koje nikada nije poslano, kao kadar iz filma koji ne postoji, ali ga pamtimo. Ono što je izvan kadra jednako je važno kao i ono što se vidi. Svjetlo ne otkriva, ono zove, zavarava, vodi. Sjena nije opasnost, nego prostor slobode.
„Intimni grad“ nije dokument vremena, već vizualna elegija o neizrečenom. On ne imitira život, nego ga pretvara u jezik, u tihu partituru koja se ne sluša ušima, nego kožom. To je fotografija kao poezija, kao arhitektura osjećaja, kao poziv gledatelju da ne gleda, nego osjeća, da ne tumači, nego osluškuje.
„Intimni grad“ nije stvoren da impresionira, nego da ostane, u oku, u dahu, u onom kratkom trenutku kada ne znamo je li nešto stvarno bilo ili smo to samo sanjali.
Night Life
U seriji Night Life, Matijević nas vodi u Zagreb koji pripada samo onima koji izlaze nakon sumraka. Njegove fotografije nisu bilješke o zabavi, već portreti grada u trenutku kad prestaje biti tek scenografija i postaje živi organizam. Svaka slika otkriva fragment noći: dim iz barova, energiju plesnog podija, intimu prolaznog pogleda preko čaše ili teatralnost ulice pretvorene u pozornicu.
Umjesto glamura, Matijević pronalazi složenost. Night Bar bilježi kolektivni puls, A Man with a Pipe prikazuje ironičnu figuru koja nadilazi klišee, dok Funny Stories i City Boys otkrivaju komediju zajedništva. U Black Piggy i Tango, tijelo postaje središte pripovijedanja, mjesto gdje su istodobno prisutni želja, umor i ekstaza.
Matijevićev pogled istovremeno je nježan i nepopustljiv: ne moralizira, već dopušta noći da govori vlastitim jezikom. Night Life nije samo dokument svog vremena, već poziv da se prepustimo kontradikcijama urbanog života – noći kao utočištu i iskušenju, prostoru slobode i maski.
Ono što ove fotografije čini posebno snažnima je njihova sposobnost da unesu univerzalnost u Zagreb. Svaki kadar mogao bi biti Pariz, Berlin ili New York, a opet ostaje neizbrisivo ukorijenjen u lokalnom. Upravo u toj napetosti između globalnog i intimnog leži njihova prava snaga.*
Noir City
U seriji Noir City, Matijević ne fotografira samo noć, on je orkestrira. Svaka slika funkcionira poput kadra iz izgubljene filmske vrpce, filma koji nikad nije snimljen, ali koji na neki način već postoji u našoj kolektivnoj mašti. Sjene se produžuju, prozori postaju budna oka, ograde se uzdižu poput tihih barijera; sam grad transformira se u sukrivca i pozornicu.
Njegove figure nisu protagonisti, već prikaze: prolazna silueta u Escape, suspendirana gesta u Outstretched Hand, tihi pokret u Quiet Steps. To nisu trenuci riješeni, već postavljena pitanja. Automobili, bicikli, stubišta i vrata, svakodnevni elementi grada dobivaju pojačanu simboliku, stojeći kao metafore udaljenosti, tajni i želje.
Što Noir viziju Matijevića čini uvjerljivom nije nostalgija za zlatnim dobom filma, već njegova tvrdoglavost da ona ima relevantnost i danas. U djelima poput Rear Window ili High Fence osjeća se Hitchcockova napetost destilirana u mirovanje; u Departure i City Cars, egzistencijalna praznina suvremenog metropolisa. Fotografije odolijevaju zatvaranju. Upućuju na priče, ali ih nikad u potpunosti ne ispričaju, nudeći fragmente narativa koji je zauvijek odgođen.
Noir City je manje dokumentacija, a više mitologija urbane noći. Podsjeća nas da crno-bijelo nije odsutnost boje, već polje beskonačnih nijansi, gdje sjena sama postaje subjekt. Matijevićev grad nije jednostavno viđen, on se prisluškuje, poluzapamti, sanja. U tome leži njegova snaga: spoznaja da svaka noć skriva vlastito kino, čekajući da se otkrije samo u fragmentima.*
Secret City
U seriji Secret City, noć se pretvara u vizualni roman, roman bez kraja, sastavljen od fragmenata, nagovještaja i šapta tajni. Ovo je svijet u kojem sjene imaju vlastiti život, a siluete i skriveni tragovi postaju naratori. Fotografija ovdje ne otkriva, nego skriva; svaka slika više skriva nego što pokazuje, a upravo u toj neodređenosti leži njezina snaga.
Likovi prolaze kroz kadar bez imena, lica nestaju prije nego što ih možemo razaznati, a geste ostaju nedovršene, poput rečenica prekinutih na pola daha. Svaka kompozicija otvara prizor enigmatične pripovijesti: The Client i The Woman with the Mask prizivaju figuru tajne koja nikada ne dopušta potpuni uvid; Nightclub i Coming Car zrače prijetnjom i iščekivanjem, dok Girl in Smoke i In a Trance lebde na granici sna i halucinacije. U An Enigmatic Call i Meet Me Inside, radnja je tek aluzija, a ono najbitnije ostaje izvan kadra, upravo u toj praznini nastaje napetost koja paralizira i privlači istovremeno.
Matijević ne stvara protagoniste; on oblikuje enigme. Osmijesi koji postaju prijetnja, ruke koje ostaju nedostižne, prostori koji su istovremeno utočišta i zamke. Estetika Secret City zavodljiva je jer ostaje nerazriješena; erotična jer skriva; mistična jer odbija konačno objašnjenje.
Secret City je pismo bez adrese, poruka u boci bačena u ocean noći, poziv gledatelju da ga pronađe, pročita i nikada u potpunosti protumači. Svaka fotografija šapuće vlastitu priču, ali nijedna ne otkriva cijelu istinu; u tom nerazriješenom prostoru, između sjene i svjetla, između znanog i nepoznatog, nastaje čista čarolija.
Nocturno, Luminous Caress
„Serije Nocturno i Luminous Caress intimni su hommage noći“, njenoj tišini, erosu i meditativnoj mistici. Te fotografije šapuću; približavaju se gledatelju poput daha na koži. Svjetlo nije reflektor, već svijeća; sjena nije prijetnja, već prostor introspekcije.
Noć ovdje nije samo fizičko stanje, već duhovna dimenzija. Misli usporavaju, a tijelo postaje osjetljivije na nevidljive impulse. Nocturno i Luminous Caress vizualna su poezija ranjivosti, čežnje za bliskošću i ljepote prolaznih trenutaka. Fotografije ne pričaju priče; one stvaraju glazbenu partituru, niz nota u crno-srebrnoj boji za izvođenje na unutarnjem instrumentu gledatelja.
Velvet Nights
U seriji Velvet Nights, noć ne pada, ona se uzdiže. Nebo se spušta nad grad, ali u toj tami otvaraju se drugi prostori: polusjene, pogledi uhvaćeni u profilu, dahovi zadržani u zraku. Te fotografije nisu dokumenti; one su tragovi, zrcalni otisci svijeta neviđenog, a opet duboko osjećanog.
Grad ovdje ne govori glasno. On šapuće. U barovima, hodnicima, iza stakla limuzina odvijaju se tihi rituali prisutnosti. Žena u bijelom krznenom kaputu nije simbol glamura, već ranjivosti. Pogled koji ne traži odgovor. Cigareta kojoj nije potreban kraj.
Inspirirane vizualnim jezikom filma noir i filozofijom odsutnosti, ove serije kreću se između onoga što je poznato i onoga što se samo naslućuje. U svakom kadru bljesne pitanje: Tko koga promatra? Kamera nije oko, ona je duh. Ne bilježi tijela, već njihove odsutnosti. Ne osvjetljava, već produbljuje tamu.
Velvet Nights ne traži vjeru. Ona poziva da zaboravite dan. Da se uvučete u mekoću sjene, gdje vrijeme postaje porozno, a smisao samo mogućnost.
The Night Muse
Žena je trenutak koji traje, odsjaj koji ostaje u sjećanju, miris što tiho opija. U njoj se sjedinjuju sve nijanse ljepote, moći i nedohvatljivosti. Njene oči nisu tek ogledala duše, već beskrajni svemiri ispunjeni žarom strasti i tajnama skrivene moći. U svakom treptaju krije se obećanje neispričane priče, one koju želiš čuti, ali nikad u potpunosti ne razumiješ.
Postoji nešto gotovo nadnaravno u njezinoj pojavi. Ulazi u prostor i svi zastaju, ne zbog buke koju pravi, nego zbog tišine koju nosi, gustoj i neizrecivoj. Kao opijum, uvlači se pod kožu, opija bez dodira. Samouvjerena, a nježna. Tajanstvena, a prisutna. Femme fatale, ali i nježna kao svila. Putenost joj nije grijeh, nego jezik kojim razgovara sa svijetom.
U njezinim očima ogleda se večernji grad, svjetla, prolaznici, tajne. Njezini pogledi mogu biti meki poput svile, a potom oštri kao oštrica želje. Nije potrebna riječ, dovoljan je pogled preko ramena, polagan pokret prstiju niz čašu, način na koji križa noge. Sve je to koreografija njezine moći.
Sve što čini, čini savršeno. Popravljajući kosu, spuštajući pogled, naginjući se, svaki pokret je svjestan, precizan i savršeno tempiran. Korača noćnim ulicama s uspravnim ramenima, laganim osmijehom i haljinom koja prkosi gravitaciji.
Ona ne traži potvrdu, svijet joj se divi sam od sebe. Žena koja zna tko je ne traži dopuštenje da bude poželjna, ona to jednostavno jest. Ne postoji savršen opis žene, jer ona je tajna koju ne možeš u potpunosti dokučiti. Svaka je drugačija, a opet u sebi nosi isti ključ, moć opijuma. Ona je onaj trenutak koji traje još dugo nakon što ode, parfem koji ostaje u zraku, trag ruža na čaši, sjenka osmijeha koji ne znaš je li stvaran ili izmaštan.
U vrtlogu urbanih noći, gdje svjetla grada plešu sa sjenama, žene postaju ne samo protagonisti, nego i enigmatični pripovjedači vlastitih priča. Ove dvije galerije predstavljaju suptilan dijalog između intimnog i javnog, unutarnjeg i vanjskog, mističnog i stvarnog.
„The Night Muse” otkriva noć kao prostor tihe kontemplacije i skrivenih ljepota, gdje ženski likovi bivaju utjelovljeni u složenim portretima svjetla i sjene, ranjivosti i snova. Žena je muza, tiha čuvarica tajni, utjelovljenje snage koja ne viče, ali se osjeća u svakom pogledu, u svakoj iskrici svjetla.
Ove fotografije ne traže samo da budu viđene, one pozivaju na duboko gledanje, na razumijevanje višedimenzionalnosti ženskog iskustva. One su oda tajnama, snazi i transformaciji koja se odvija u svakom kutu noći.
Na kraju, The Night Muse stvara poetičnu sintezu noći i žene, prostor za beskrajnu igru svjetla i tame, prisutnosti i odsutnosti, snova i stvarnosti.
Ove serije istražuju različite dimenzije noći, grada i intimnog iskustva, potvrđujući Matijevića kao fotografa koji tamu ne čini prijetećom, već utočištem, prostorom introspektivne ljepote.
NATURE - Silence
Photographic Series
Nature
Nature in my photographs is not a backdrop, not a stage. It is a quiet chronicle of existence, a place where light and shadow meet the ineffable, where a moment surrenders to time and memory. Sometimes it is a solitary tree standing in the mist, sometimes a stump, old and faded, or a horizon that fades into the distance, yet each scene carries its own question, its own weight, its own silence.
My images do not document, they seek. They ask the viewer to pause, to feel the rhythm of air, textures, and shadows, to recognize the inner harmony that is always present but seldom perceived. Light falls like a whisper; shadow coils like memory. In these moments, ordinary elements of nature become poetic vessels of time and consciousness, reflections that transcend the visual and enter the realm of introspective experience.
In this series, I strive to reveal what is invisible: the currents of thought, sensation, and inner melodies that pervade the world, yet are rarely noticed. Photography becomes a dialogue between the present and the elusive, between the eye and the spirit, between us and the nature that shapes us. Each image is a whisper, each composition a meditation, and every contrast of light and shadow an invitation to contemplation to recognize in silence that which has always been there, yet is scarcely grasped by words.
PRIRODA - Tišina
Fotografska serija
Priroda
Priroda u mojim fotografijama nije pozadina, nije scenografija. Ona je tiha kronika postojanja, mjesto gdje svjetlo i sjena susreću ono što je neizrecivo, gdje se trenutak predaje vremenu i pamćenju. Ponekad je to samotno drvo koje stoji u magli, ponekad panj, star i izblijedio, ili horizont koji se gubi u daljini, ali svaki prizor nosi svoje pitanje, svoju težinu, svoju tišinu. Moje slike ne dokumentiraju, one traže. One traže od promatrača da zastane, da osjeti ritam zraka, tekstura i sjena, da prepozna unutarnju harmoniju koja je uvijek prisutna, ali rijetko uočena. Svjetlo pada poput šapata; sjena se uvija poput sjećanja. U tim trenucima obični elementi prirode postaju poetični nositelji vremena i svijesti, refleksije koje nadilaze vizualno i ulaze u područje introspektivnog iskustva. U ovoj seriji nastojim otkriti ono što je nevidljivo: tokove misli, osjetnosti, unutarnje melodije koje prožimaju svijet, a koje rijetko primjećujemo. Fotografija postaje dijalog između prisutnog i neuhvatljivog, između oka i duha, između nas i prirode koja nas oblikuje. Svaka slika je šapat, svaka kompozicija je meditacija, a svaki kontrast svjetla i sjene poziv je na kontemplaciju da prepoznamo u tišini ono što je uvijek bilo tu, a što riječima teško zahvaćamo.