When talking about someone who constantly puts himself or herself down, people often say, “He (or she) doesn’t know how good he (or she) is.” Such is not the case for Evgen Bavcar, (pronounce ‘E-oo-gen Ba-oo-char’), who knows he’s a good photographer, even though he’s never seen any of his photographs. You see: Evgen Bavcar is blind, and has been since the age of 11.
Evgen was born in Lokavec, Slovenia, (a small city near the Italian border, in a country that was then called Yugoslavia), in 1946. And for the first 11 years of his life, everything was fine: he played with his little sister, he went to regular school, and did what normal children in his native country did. But one day, while playing in the woods, he was speared in the left eye by a branch. Doctors couldn’t repair the damage, and they were forced to remove the eye, and replace it with a prosthesis. A few months later, he lost his other eye while handling a mine detonator, and was hospitalized on and off for the following two years. Nevertheless, he was lucky in his bad luck; shrapnel had planted itself in his prosthesis. If he had still had had a real left eye, the shrapnel would have gone through the eye, and into his brain.
(P.S. The accident with the mine detonator officially made him a ‘war-wounded person’.)
Two years of rehabilitation later, Evgen was sent to a school for the blind in Ljubjana, to complete his education. And it was at that school that his life changed, (even though he wouldn’t notice it until about 25 years later.)
In 1962, at age 16, Evgen got hold of a camera, in order to take a picture of his then-girlfriend. As he pressed the shutter, he realized that, even though he would never see exactly what his photos looked like, he was a great photographer. But he knew also that he would never be able to make a living out of it; so he took courses at the University of Ljubljana, in order to become a telephone switchboard operator. He graduated in 1963, and found a job at a local switchboard office.
But a few years later, he felt this wasn’t a job for him anymore; and so in 1969, he returned to the University of Ljubjana.
He graduated in 1972, and then went to study philosophy at the Université de Paris 1, a.k.a. the Sorbonne Academy, where he graduated in 1975. The following year, he started work at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, (French equivalent of the National Research Council), as a temporary worker. He still works there today
His first public display of his photographs took place in 1987, and it was called ‘Carrés Noires sur Vos Nuits Blanches’ (‘Black Squares on Your White Nights’). It was a great success, so much that he decided to organize other such exhibitions, including:
‘Narcisse Sans Miroir’ (‘Narcissus Without his Mirror’) – 1989
‘Images D’Ailleurs’ (‘Images from Other Places’) – 1990
‘Le Regard Rapproché (‘A Closeup Look’) – 1993
‘Mémoires Rapprochées’ (‘Closeup Memories’) – 1998
‘Sur les Traces de Balzac’ (‘Following the Tracks of Balzac’) –1999
‘Villes d’Europe – D’Une Nuit L’Ailleurs’ (‘Cities of Europe – A Night in Other Places’) – 2000
Contornos sagrados – 2003
(P.S. Officers from the City of Paris were so impressed by his first exhibit that, in 1988, they named him Official Photographer for the Month of Photography 1988.)
Many of these exhibits weren’t just shown in Paris ; they have also traveled to places such as Strasbourg and Tours. And outside the country, too: Berlin (Germany), Naples (Italy), Mexico City, Sao Paolo (Brazil), and Moncton (Canada), among others.
Evgen has also written at least a half-dozen books, including:
‘Le Voyeur Absolu’ (‘The Absolute Seer’) (1992) ;
‘L’Inaccessible Étoile, ou un Voyage Dans le Temps’ (The Inaccessible Star, or a Trip Through Time’) (1996) ;
‘À la Rencontre de l’Ange’ (‘Meeting the Angel’) (1996) ;
‘Le Troisième Œil’ (‘The Third Eye’) (1997) ;
‘Regard de la Nuit’ (‘What the Night Sees’) (2000); and
‘Mémoires du Brésil’ (‘Memories of Brazil’) (2003)
He has appeared on various television cultural shows in France, Germany, Mexico, and Brazil; and has even been the subject of many documentary movies, including:
‘Narcisse Sans Miroir’, by H. Koder in 1987 ;
‘Les Images D’Ailleurs’ by Ralf Zöller in 1992 ;
‘La Chambre Obscure’ (‘The Darkroom’) by Stéphane Leblanc in 1992 ;
‘Le Regard Rapproché’ (‘A Closer Look’) by François Levy-Kunz in 1996 ; and
‘Janela de l’Alma’ by Joao Jardim in 2002.
And, of course, he has also been the subject of articles in magazines. (The Spanish photography magazine ‘Fractál’ even devoted a whole edition to him in 1999.) Among these magazines, we can cite: ‘Le Monde de l’Éducation’, ‘L’Atelier du Roman’, ‘Les Temps Modernes’, and ‘Leib und Leben’.
How good is a talent if you can’t teach it to others? Evgen has taught in schools all over Europe and Latin America (N.B. Evgen is fluent in Spanish, as well as a few other languages.) Among the places he has taught: The School of Artistic Photography in Vienna, Austria; universities in Geneva, Berlin, and Madríd; and the University of San Jose, in Costa Rica.
And finally, Mr. Bavcar has been a guest speaker at various conferences all over Europe and South America. And not just conferences on photography; he’s also talked about the status of European arts and culture in a globalized world, and about where disabled artists fit in this puzzle.
In spite of all this international fame, Evgen can still be found walking the streets of Paris, wearing clear glasses, a black hat, cape, and a red scarf. And, of course, holding a camera in his hands.