In this early photographic series, Dubravka Lazić turns her lens toward a subject rarely treated with such a quiet dignity: domestic cats. Shot in 2005, these portraits mimic the formal conventions of ID photography – direct gaze, frontal composition, neutral background – yet their purpose is far from bureaucratic.
Each cat is presented as an individual, a personality in its own right. Stripped of decorative context, the animals emerge not as pets or symbols, but as singular beings with distinct presences. Lazić approaches them not with irony or sentimentality, but with the same seriousness we reserve for human portraiture. The result is a subtle play between species, perception and representation.
There is both humor and tenderness in the gesture – an instance that identity is not exclusive to the human face, and that the act of looking can reveal personality across species lines. In these portraits, the cats are not symbols or metaphors. They are themselves.
ID No. 15 The Elegant, 2005. Photography
ID No. 15 The Elegant, 2005
From The Portraits Series
Analogue photograph (negative). Pigment print on Ilford Gallery cotton 310gms paper
Limited Edition.
Unframed.
Dubravka Lazić, graduated from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (1997), then received her master's degree at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade (2000) and her doctorate at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (2013). Educated as a painter, photographer and filmologist, she currently teaches at the Novi Sad Academy of Arts as a full professor, and also part-time at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad. In the period from 2011 to 2016, she taught at the Faculty of Applied Arts of the University of Arts in Belgrade and was also a guest lecturer at Universities abroad (West Attica University Athens, Communication University of China Beijing, Ludwigsburg University of Education, École supérieure de design Troyes).
During her academic career, she was the head of the department for New Fine Media and Photography (2007-2012), vice dean for artistic work and international cooperation (2012-2024) at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, as well as the president of the Expert Council for Humanities and Art/Art of the University of Novi Sad (2015-2021). She has been a member of the artistic council of the Platinum Gallery of the SANU branch in Novi Sad since 2016. Dubravka Lazić's artistic and exhibition activity has been active since 1998. She exhibited her works of art at numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world. She is also active in the field of theoretical authorship and is the author of several published scientific works, articles, one book and a textbook. She is an organizer and a member of several commissions of the University of Novi Sad, as well as other professional organizing committees and juries, and a manager, consultant and participant in many art projects.
