Jošt Franko is a visual artist and photographer interested in examining long-term and in-depth stories of marginalized groups and individuals. His artistic practice and research is focused on questions such as displacement, migrations, and individuals and communities on fringes of society.
Franko’s work focuses on foreign and domestic social issues through interdisciplinary projects dealing with concealed, overlooked, and invisible topics. His practice is primarily based in photography, video, installations, collage, and text. He has obtained a Masters’ degree from Goldsmiths, London and is a PhD candidate in artistic research at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
He has been focusing on the Balkan region, where with the help of image-making, he researches the consequences of the break-up of Yugoslavia, of the war that has ravaged through the region, and the shifts in political, cultural, and economic dimensions. The focus of his work in the Balkans are often refugee settlements, which have been housing the same individuals and families since the 1990s.
Franko has been a finalist of the prestigious Lange-Taylor prize several times, has received recognition from the Documentary Essay Prize, awarded by the Duke University, is a recipient of multiple Pulitzer Centre grants, and a TED Fellowship. His work was among others exhibited in various museums and festivals in Slovenia and abroad, including the New York Photo Festival (2010), Finnish Museum of Photography (2017), Format International Photography Festival (2017), Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška (2019), Museum of Modern Art Klagenfurt (2020), and Museum of Contemporary Art Ljubljana +MSUM (2020).
His work was profiled by numerous national and international media outlets, including TIME Magazine (Jošt Franko, The Young Slovenian), The New Yorker (Jost Franko’s Disappearing Slovenia), The New York Times, La Repubblica, Washington Post, Delo, Dnevnik, Sobotna priloga, Mladina. In 2010, Franko won the Slovenia Press Photo photo-essay of the year award and later on joined VII Photo Agency as the youngest member ever to be affiliated with VII.