People of Korčula - Dea Botica

Born and raised on the island of Korčula, Dea Botica is an emerging artist expressing herself through the medium of photography. She recently received an MA degree in Photography from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. Botica had several group and three solo exhibitions in both Croatia and abroad. She comes from a nearby village, Račišće, which is well-known for its maritime tradition — which was the theme of her last exhibition named Delta Oscar Mike.

When decoded from the NATO phonetic alphabet, which is used on a ship to communicate more effectively, the seemingly unrelated words “Delta Oscar Mike” spell out DOM (Croatian for “home”) and at the same time describe both the ship and the home. This exhibition shows the young artist’s two-month voyage on a cargo ship along the shores of the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and West Africa. Botica found the motivation to travel in her own heritage and attempt to understand male-dominated family tradition. Botica, as the only woman among the crew members, gave a new and personal perspective on the life of seafarers. Photographs of the ship's mundane and intimate memoirs are merged in the form of photobook followed by the exhibition.

Botica documents the daily routine of the ship's crew, capturing the vast seascapes and scenes from the ship's interior in the form of an anti-logbook. While a ship’s log chronicles marine routes and weather conditions, the artist captures the textures and colours of the ship’s and the sea’s spaces, which speak of absence, loneliness and melancholy, almost tangibly. From the foreword by Leopold Rupnik

During the high school Dea worked on many different projects. Furthermore through collaboration with Lešić Dimitri Palace she did series of photos for LD Spa.