Best of 2019 in my music related photography

My personal concerts, festivals and artist portraits favourites of the year 2019

Yet another year is coming to its end, which brings all kind of ubiquitous "best of lists" all around us. Can’t say that I’m much of a fan of them, but I admit I do like to turn back and see what have I've been up to — I’m proudly presenting my annual recapitulation of the past 12 months and my personal favourites from concerts, festivals and artist portraits taken in the past year :)

Before I start with the usual photographic highlights of the year, I just want to give a shout out to three bands that marked the 2019 for me (not just in the sense that they were the ones that I worked the most with): Parni Valjak, Koala Voice and Okttober.

Parni Valjak from Croatia are arguably the biggest rock’n’roll band in this ex Yugoslavia region, with 44 years history and experience, and numerous albums and concerts behind them. I was very privileged to work with them as their tour photographer for the bigger arena shows in Croatia this year (next one is scheduled for December 26 2019 in Varaždin’s Arena) which I really enjoyed.

Koala Voice are, on the other hand, young indie band from Slovenia and one of the best new bands in the same region, and one of my all time favourite bands. Despite their age (they’re all in their twenties) they’ll be celebrating already 10 years on the scene next year and I’m positive that the wider region (Europe, I’m talking about you!) will hear about them much more in the coming years. This year I joined them on few gigs on their Balkan tour and we did a promo photoshoot last month and both of that was just a blast! :)

Last but not least, Okttober. They are a great band from Maribor, Slovenia that, after some hiatus, are back and are recording their second album as we speak. I was really happy to discover this band, meet the guys and follow them on few of their concerts this year (not to forget the fun photo session we had). More fun to come, definitely!

Besides those three bands, I’d like to list shortly few other photographic highlights (not all music related, though!) that made also 2019 so awesome:

• Umetnost v gibu (Art in motion), solo photography exhibition focused on dance photography, was a nice retrospective of collaborations that I had with different dance schools, festivals and individuals in the past years — well, almost a decade, to be precise :)
• Mentoring a two day Concert photography workshop in Maribor, Slovenia this September was a great experience and a great kick for me personally. Music photography can be a lonesome job sometimes, so to communicate with other photographers, socialise and pass some of that knowledge was quite nice. I was also happy that we were able to organise to shoot live performances of two great local bands, which all helped to make that weekend a one to remember :)
• Working with Uroš Kaurin and Vito Weis, two brilliant Slovenian actors, for their latest theatre performance Heroj 3.0 (Hero 3.0), on a promotional photoshoot was something I really enjoyed and would definitely love to do more in the future! That said, all portrait and promotional photoshoots this year were great fun and I’m looking forward to the ones in 2020!
• I was also working as a unit still photographer on a movie set in Ljubljana, Slovenia, this November, for the new movie of Tijana Zinajić titled "Eva" (more on than when movie is released), which was something I also really enjoyed — after "The Constitution" (Ustav Republike Hrvatske), movie by the legendary Croatian director Rajko Grlić, this was my second feature movie to be working on and it was a great, great fun, mainly because of the great crew, cast and script — can’t wait to see that one in cinema!
• Besides all that, I’ve continued working with my old clients and got few new ones, and for both I’ve been extremely extremely grateful!

For the end, as the tradition goes (already for the 9th time since I’ve started my website!), I'm posting some of my favourite concert, festival and musical portraits photographs of the year 2019 — hope you enjoy them!

I also wish to sincerely thank to all of the artists, bands, managers, light designers, sound engineers, stage technicians, colleagues and friends who made all of this this possible!

Thank you all for your support, stay well & see you in 2020! ;)

Sašo Vollmaier @ SHtudio.eu, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Koala Voice @ Rock Caffe, Kostajnica (Bosnia and Herzegovina), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Fans of Parni Valjak @ Tvrđava sv. Mihovila, Šibenik (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Jose James @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Gregor Jančič "Moony" (Happy Ol' McWeasel) and the flying Weezl beer @ Jazz klub Satchmo, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Marijan Brkić Brk (Parni Valjak) @ Dvorana Mladosti, Rijeka (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Foltin @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl @ MC Pekarna, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Madame Brumowski @ Pekarna, Dvorana Gustaf, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Koala Voice @ SHtudio.eu, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Matic Jereb (Stari pes), photographed on stage @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Franja Kočnik @ SHtudio.eu, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Tilen Prašnikar (Koala Voice) @ River Pub, Rijeka (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Fan at StrojMachine gig @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

GB's Lab @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Parni Valjak @ Dvorana Mladosti, Rijeka (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Okttober @ Pekarna, Dvorana Gustaf, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Okttober @ Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Dalibor Marinković Dado (Parni Valjak) @ Dvorana Mladosti, Rijeka (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Koala Voice @ Bulevar Books, Novi Sad (Serbia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Martin Mravlje (Stari pes) - the moment when a guitarist hears a bass player solo :) @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Špela Huzjak (Madame Brumowski) @ Pekarna, Dvorana Gustaf, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Husein Hasanefendić Hus (Parni Valjak) @ Dvorana Mladosti, Rijeka (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Parni Valjak fans @ Spaladium Arena, Split (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Urban & 4 @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Koala Voice @ SHtudio.eu, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Marjan Stanić (Jimmy Barka Experience) @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Milan Fras (Okttober) @ Pekarna, Dvorana Gustaf, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Kristina Tina Kresnik (Parni Valjak) and Davor Rodik, guest on steel guitar @ Spaladium Arena, Split (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Nikola Stojanovič - Niki (Okttober) @ Pekarna, Dvorana Gustaf, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Tilen Prašnikar (Koala Voice) @ Buffet Bunker, Pazin (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

The Garifuna Collective @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Happy Ol' McWeasel @ Festival Lent, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Nikola Sekulović @ Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Milan Fras (Okttober) @ Pekarna, Dvorana Gustaf, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Aki Rahimovski (Parni Valjak) @ Spaladium Arena, Split (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Okttober @ Pekarna, Dvorana Gustaf, Maribor (Slovenia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Matej Milošev, guest on cello for Parni Valjak @ Tvrđava sv. Mihovila, Šibenik (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak

Aki Rahimovski (Parni Valjak) @ Tvrđava sv. Mihovila, Šibenik (Croatia), 2019 Photo: © Saša Huzjak