Ja sam poslednja

“Ja sam poslednja” (“I am the last one”) is a personal project about my father and me. Throughout our lives, we shared many similarities, both physically and emotionally, yet in the years before his death we gradually lost the closeness we once had. The distance that grew between us became an important part of our relationship and, after his passing, left many questions unresolved about who he was and who we were together.

With no children after me, the project becomes not only an attempt to preserve the memory of my father, but also to preserve the story we shared together. Through archives and personal narratives, I reflect on inheritance, continuity, and traces people leave behind in one another. As the last living bearer of my family name, I understand “Ja sam poslednja” as something that reaches beyond genealogy. It is also about the responsibility of carrying a shared history forward and the awareness that, with no one after me, this story ultimately ends with me.

The project reflects on resemblance and the complex ways in which family bonds continue to exist despite distance and absence. It considers how much of another person remains within us and how relationships can continue to shape our identities even after they have changed or ended. Rather than focusing only on memory, the work is concerned with connection between two people whose lives deeply mirrored one another, yet who never had the chance to fully understand each other. In trying to preserve him, I am trying to preserve us.

Emilija Kosić took part in No Pressure Portfolio Review at Sarajevo Photography Festival with our Managing Editor Ilaria Sponda.