Biljana Jurukovski | Tribal Muses

Biljana Jurukovski (43) is a Macedonian Australian Award Winning Photographer who has always been inspired and amazed by the diverse and beautiful expressions of different cultures.

Biljana’s art is a culmination of her passion, love, and respect for other cultures and traditions; her art depicts a graceful world where strength and pride are engraved on the faces of the people photographed. Biljana considers herself an explorer and adventurer with a great passion for photography. Biljana sees photography as a medium for communication between people. She has traveled in many countries on the five continents through some of the most remote areas, and she has faced very challenging situations in the quest to bring closer to all of us the beauty of diversity.

Her aim is through photography to create discussions about different cultures, their way of living, and to present beauty in a very unique way. She also wants to challenge the traditional way of how we see the beauty and to provoke and lead viewers to engage in conversations about the concept of beauty.

“People often will ask me questions such as” are these people poor.”
and my answer is:
” I did not go there to search for poverty; instead, I went to see the beauty and to bring it to you the viewer the beauty inspired by nature.”
– Biljana Jurukovski

Biljana Jurukovski | About the project

My Tribal Muses -The Avant-Garde of the Tribal World series is a collection of intimate portraits from some of the most unique, ancient, mystical and exotic human inhabitants of this world – the Surma tribe.
They are my Muses that are rebellious, wild, and untamed. They have been my unstoppable force in pursuing my dreams.
They are a vision of women’s strength, beauty, and dignity.
They are wildflowers, hard to find, and once found it impossible to forget them.
Most of the photographs in Tribal Muses have been taken under very challenging circumstances due to the remoteness of the locations, lack of amenities, and the presence of tribal wars. Suri/Surma tribe resides on the border between Ethiopia and South Sudan.
What makes Suri, one of the most iconic tribes is their imagination and artistic skills when it comes to beautification and being fashionable in their own way.
With no Western influences, the Surma tribe managed to create their own “Code of beauty and fashion,” using only elements from Mother Nature. They use their bodies as the canvases, painting unique arts on their skin with pigments made from powdered volcanic rock and adorning themselves with materials obtained from the world around them, such as flowers, leaves, grasses, shells and animal horns.
Their art is endlessly inventive, magical, and natural. Some of them were intentionally photographed against a black backdrop so that the focus can be on their beauty and artistic skills.
The whole idea was that the focus of the viewer would be on the portrait itself with no other distractions whatsoever.
The sense of individuality and creativity is very strong amongst the people, and as a photographer, I felt that I need to share the story—the story of creativity and beauty, a story that goes beyond the world of poverty and beyond the fear of the unknown places.

“There is a universe inside my mind, and my tribal muses live there. They are rebellious, wild, untamed. They have been my unstoppable force in pursuing my dreams. They are a vision of love and vision of women’s strength, beauty, and dignity. They are the wildflowers that are hard to find and once found impossible to forget”.
– Biljana Jurukovski

BILJANA JURUKOVSKI

Website: www.tribalmuse.net
Instagram: @tribal_muse_gallery
Facebook: tribalmuse.net

Read the Full article on Lens Magazine Issue #63