Nikola Amanovic is a Sydney-based community practitioner and creative who wanders through life and the world, connecting with people, looking for beauty and mark making. 

Nikola holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Culture and a Graduate Diploma in Dramatic Art (Directing) from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). His other studies are in the area of community development, communications and business. Nikola has over ten years of experience in nurturing successful teams, and leading impact storytelling and community building initiatives - in-person and online - using traditional ways and modern technologies.

The collection of photographs in Nikola Amanovic’s Aesthetics of Longing are byproducts of flaneuring – wandering around –through the Balkans between 2009-2014. Through the lens of his 35mm film and digital cameras, Nikola takes us on a pilgrimage from his birthplace of Knin to the streets of Serbia’s capital city-Belgrade; from the war-torn province of Kosovo and Metohija to the warm seas of Boka Bay in Montenegro.

Nikola Amanovic’s Aesthetics of Longing gives a rare and genuine insight into the elusive past of Former Yugoslavia and the persistent melancholy in the hearts and minds of the Yugoslav diaspora. Nikola’s photographs are raw, unfiltered and seeping with nostalgia. His stories are imbued by a sentimental longing for a time and a place that no longer exists - a collective emotion that connects millions of displaced refugees and migrants from all over the world.

Aesthetics of Longing is a book that has been a lifetime in the making and is relevant now more than ever.

Words & images by Nikola Amanovic. 
Book design by Aphrodite Delaguiado. 
Published by Illographo Press.

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ISBN: 978-0-6457234-5-8
Publication date: 23 May 2024
Size:  160 pages, 210 mm x 297 mm, Perfect bound
Edition: 100