Opposite to the typical exchange experience other students have, AUBG student Martin Milevski had a wholesome, retreat-like time at Breda University for Applied Sciences. He needed an escape from the familiarity and busy social life at AUBG, and the result of his quiet and restorative time was a bold and innovative exhibition at his host university in the Netherlands.
Choosing the Netherlands
When choosing his exchange destination, Martin was deciding between three: Breda, Vienna, and a university in Norway. “The Norwegian one felt like a great therapeutic escape,” he shares. “It was in the middle of mountains and lakes, and it felt surreal. But it was remote. I knew I wanted to travel and explore, so the Netherlands made more sense.”
His decision to study at Breda University of Applied Sciences was both personal and strategic. Martin saw the semester as an opportunity to explore what life in the Netherlands might feel like long-term, especially as he’s considering Amsterdam for a master’s degree.
“I wanted to see how the system works, how people live, how foreigners adapt,” he says. “It was a test, basically, but also a chance to switch things up and meet different people.”
Slowing down and prioritizing himself
At first, Martin needed some time to adjust to the new environment, but he soon felt like he was in the right place. “After the first month, I got really comfortable. People told me they felt like they’d known me for a long time, even more than some local students. That made me feel like I integrated well.”
At times, he would have a pleasant reality check. “I’d be walking to class on a random Monday morning and suddenly stop, like, wait… I’m in the Netherlands.”
Martin blended well into the environment and wasn’t particularly drawn to the typical exchange lifestyle of constant partying and socializing. “I had many opportunities to go out and wild out, but I wanted to have a bit of a detox, from the noise, from everything,” he said.
His routine felt wholesome and almost cinematic: listening to jazz music, cooking, and carving out time for himself.
“I brought that back with me as well. I’m really prioritizing myself. The whole exchange semester helped me become more myself and more self-appreciating.”
He also embraced solo travel across the Netherlands and visited childhood friends in Hamburg, Germany.
Martin’s first photography exhibition
What made Martin’s exchange experience truly different from the rest was his first solo photography exhibition. A Journalism and Mass Communication and Film and Creative Media student at AUBG, as well as a portrait photographer, Martin took the Portfolio Path course at his host university in Breda and developed a photographic project inspired by his semiotics class at AUBG.
“In my semiotics class, Professor Ezra Winton asked, if you could create something as a sign, what would it be? And I said, imagine if there is a book with noses. Like a product book, but it’s human. My professor said he has never seen anything like it and encouraged me to develop it,” shares Martin.
And so, in his Portfolio Path course in Breda, Martin found the inspiration and outlet to realize his idea. Perhaps the change in scenery and people helped him find his muse.
“I wanted to examine how culture ties to facial features and the insecurities people carry about them. I’ve also felt really insecure about a lot of facial and body features I have, and it has felt like some sort of a battle. As a photographer, I try to make people feel good in their skin.”
He gathered students at the university, representing diverse cultural and racial features, and photographed their noses in close-up portraiture.
But that was not all. “One of the models was telling me about her insecurities with her nose, and that inspired me to turn this into an interactive exhibition with audio stories,” shares Martin.
After each shoot, he would interview the models about their personal stories and their connection to their noses, their families, and their upbringing. At the exhibition, he displayed the photographs of noses with QR codes beneath them that led to the short interviews.
Learning by documenting
Martin had to begin preparing the exhibition well in advance. “I knew that I was leaving the Netherlands early, so I had to start early with everything.”
He also experienced a different type of learning, as he was expected to complete 50 learning hours, documenting every aspect of the photoshoots and the exhibition, from lighting setups to feedback.
“That felt really difficult for me because at AUBG, as a JMC and film major, I don’t have many things that I have to document in the sense of evidence. It’s more practice-based,” he shares.
Nevertheless, the experience was totally worth it. It was his first-ever photography exhibition, and abroad at that, and he truly made the most of it in a calm, productive, and lasting way.
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