We were lucky to catch up with Filip Kojic recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Filip thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with inspirations and heroes. Are there any historical figures you look up to?

Indubitably, the philosopher who has influenced me the most in life, and essentially helped me intellectualize and eloquently convey the internal feelings and beliefs I held from the time I first seriously considered ethics during elementary school is Prussian writer and philosopher Immanuel Kant. Being a moral constructivist myself, his duty ethics, as expounded upon in his seminal Critiques and other literature, cut more profoundly into the subject matter than something like the Buddhistic concept of perfect enlightenment, fine as it is in and of itself. His most famous quotation is, perhaps, the one partially engraved on his tombstone in present-day Kaliningrad, Russia: ‘Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. I do not seek or conjecture either of them as if they were veiled obscurities or extravagancies beyond the horizon of my vision; I see them before me and connect them immediately with the consciousness of my existence.’ (Critique of Practical Reason, 1788). The following one is the most telling of his ethical teachings: ‘Nothing in the world, indeed nothing even beyond the world, can possibly be conceived which could be called good without qualification except a good will.’ (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, 1785). I have inhabited this mindset and philosophy wholeheartedly my entire life.

Filip, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I already gave an interview to your sister publication related to my primary line of business which is private security. Here, I would simply like to succinctly elaborate on my decades long work as a landscape/architectural photographer. Photography, hand in hand with literature, has always been my favorite art. I have created thousands of photographs since early adulthood, and now, turning 40 years of age, I find myself in a particularly devoted and deliberate frame of mind as it pertains to taking images. I exclusively use a one-hundred megapixel medium format still image camera by Hasselblad (X2D), and it is easily the greatest imaging tool for the type of framing I am obsessed with creating. I can produce, for myself or any given client, hyper-quality still images of vast landscapes or dense urban environments which can easily be scaled up or down as a direct result of the format size and pixel quantity. Most of my work ends up being printed on canvas, or as a large format framed photograph. As all good artists do, I much prefer my work to do the ‘talking’ for itself……..

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

This is, quite obviously, a question which pertains to the vast majority of people who’ve endeavored into any line of business for themselves. I have the good fortune of making a relatively comfortable living in another line of work that I enjoy, and which isn’t remotely as subjective in nature and effect as photography inevitably is. Through my private security firm, I am able to serve a small number of select clients, with a formidable yet easily manageable workforce, and in doing such a pragmatic, conscientious job, I fund and ‘fuel’ my eternal love of fine arts in the photographic and other realms…. Therefore, from personal experience, my best advice to anyone looking to ‘survive’ in a fine art environment is to find a thoroughly practical source of income that they can rely on at any given point in time, not allowing financial considerations to intrude or ‘diminish’ that person’s artistic integrity to any tangible extent! Clearly, something much easier said than done, but I’m living proof of it, and feel tremendous pride in prevailing throughout the decades gone by……..

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Self-fulfilment, never having allowed anyone or anything to affect my integrity as a human being and an artist. I have lived an ethically pristine life, and the artistic work I have done is as purely derived from my heart and mind as any conceivably ever could.

Contact Info:

• Other: I share the albums I have created in the cloud with anyone curious and interested in seeing them. If they are compelled to work on something together, I would be more than happy to hear from them! Please e-mail me at [email protected] with any sincere inquires!

Image Credits
All image are copyright of Filip Kojic, 2024.