Anastas Jovanović

Who was Anastas Jovanović?

Anastas Jovanović was the first Serbian photographer of his time to treat photography as an art form and to capture on film historical events as they were happening. He was the author of the first photographic pantheon of the most significant events and people of his time. He died in 1899 in his Belgrade home.

Jovanović, of Bulgarian origin, was born in Vratsa, an important administrative and garrison city under Ottoman rule in 1817. He came to live in Belgrade where his artistic talents were recognized early on. His mentor, Miloš Obrenović I, Prince of Serbia, sent Jovanovic, at the expense of the government, to Vienna in 1837 to study painting, graphics, and lithography at the Vienna Academy under the direction of Gselhofer and Johann Stadler. While at the academy he became interested in the invention of Louis Daguerre. He was also among the first photographers to capitalize on this new invention, which was capable of capturing a "truthful likeness" of anyone and anything. Jovanović, of course, became among the first photographers to open a Daguerrotype studio while still in Vienna.