Sarajevo Photography Festival Presents Exhibition "Leaving and Waving" by Deanna Dikeman in Split, Croatia

On April 22, Sarajevo Photography Festival, in a collaboration with Fotoklub Split, presented Deanna Dikeman’s acclaimed series Leaving and Waving in Split, Croatia – a work originally featured as part of the Festival’s 2025 edition.

The exhibition brought to audiences a deeply personal and universally resonant body of work created over 27 years. Throughout this period, Dikeman photographed her parents standing in the driveway of their home, waving goodbye each time she departed. What began as a simple, almost ritual gesture evolved into a profound visual meditation on family, distance, time, and loss.

This presentation marked another step in Sarajevo Photography Festival’s commitment to extending its programme beyond Bosnia and Herzegovina, fostering regional exchange and introducing internationally recognized photographic practices to new contexts. As a leading regional platform for contemporary photography, the Festival has continuously connected emerging and established artists, while engaging with socially relevant themes and encouraging dialogue across borders.

The Festival remains dedicated to openness, collaboration, and the creation of spaces for meaningful artistic exchange.

We extend our sincere thanks to Fotoklub Split for their generous hospitality and for being such thoughtful and welcoming hosts.

About the Artist

Deanna Dikeman (b. 1954, Sioux City, Iowa, USA) lives and works in Kansas City. She graduated from Purdue University and began her photographic practice after leaving a corporate career in 1985 to take a photography class. Since then, her work has focused on her family and surroundings in the American Midwest.

Dikeman is the recipient of the Aaron Siskind Foundation Fellowship (1996), the United States Artists Booth Fellowship (2008), and the Guggenheim Fellowship (2023). Since 1988, she has held 24 solo exhibitions and participated in over 160 group exhibitions worldwide. Her work has been widely recognized, including the Prix Nadar (2021) for Leaving and Waving, awarded by Gens d’Images, and a finalist position for the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation First PhotoBook Award (2021). A feature on her work published by The New Yorker was selected among the magazine’s 25 best stories of 2020.

Photographs from Leaving and Waving have been exhibited in museums, galleries, and festivals across thirteen countries worldwide.