J/N/D/B/C

'Watch out! Do not step on the little people' is a photo series of the little people in large scale situations.
As a tool that serves the concept, the media of photography allows us to criticize the world through the eyes of the little people. They "...are in an oversized world. It's a normal sized world, of course, but the Lilliputians are lost here, surprised by unconquerable obstacles, exposed to deadly dangers or stand in infinite wonder unable to perceive oversized shapes that surround them. Sometimes they stand alone thinking about unforeseeable mysteries of their own existence."*
Photographs describe the situations we go through ourselves as well as the little people who are often unudjusted to the world and society. They share our feeling that sometimes it is difficult, or even impossible, to influence the 'big world'. Due to the conflict in scale their mere presence is a bold statement, sometimes even a criticism. Therefore you must watch out not to step on them because they are here, they share our streets, cities, beaches, problems, rough times, happiness and love, bravely trying to be happy in the world of obstacles in which, at any moment, they can be stamped on by the 'big ones'.
This ongoing photo project started in 2010. It was first presented in the beginning of 2012. in art gallery 'Matica Hrvatska' in Zagreb. In a smaller form, as a selection of photographs, the project was exhibited at several group exhibitions /'Greta' gallery, 'Trenutak 39' gallery/ and as a solo work in 'Nano' gallery in Zagreb.
"...By observing the entire exhibition you get the impression that author duo Dabac & Hraste actually compile their profession and passion. They use their experience in making of architectural sketches and models in which spatial proportions are established by use of human figures. For the media of presentation they choose what intimately and creatively attracts them the most, and that is photography – they both intensively and constantly photograph their surroundings. In this case, however, they deviate both from architecture and photography. They place the little people in real situations and thus change their basic purpose by making them signifiers of disproportion. Also, rather then photographing their surroundings, but based on that experience, they give us the caricature of reality with which they emphasize the difference between the subjective impression and objective reality. The amusement of the scenes eliminates the pathetic, seriousness and tragedy of our own destinies. This derives from precise selection of details from the big world in which the little people live, which is symbolized by placement of the figures in recognizable situations. The hopelessness of their situations, their wonderment and their inability to understand the self-evident, seem almost ridiculous. And thus the illusion of our understanding is isolated, pictured or unmasked. By the same analogy, whether we find their bewilderment and mere need to understand the context, comic or moving, don't we sometimes give the same impression? The observer doesn't need to be that much bigger, all it takes is a look and we are caught exposed in front of an unsolvable obstacle. This exhibition is conceptual because its perspective includes the observer in the view behind the lens and transfers it into the idea of that view."*

*Boris Greiner / Zarez, No 329, 03. 2012.