Just last week we were talking about Serbs moving back to Serbia. In

fact, as we noted, Serbs are everywhere, living in about hundred

different countries worldwide. There are 170-180,000 Serbs in the United

States according to various estimates, 45,000 of them in New York, with

the largest concentrations in Ridgewood and Astoria. The most famous

Serbian New Yorker is certainly Nikola Tesla, who was a much better

inventor than Edison. He lived in New York City for almost 60 years, and

died at the Hotel New Yorker at 40th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan.
The other famous Serbian New Yorker is a Brooklyn based photographer who goes by the name of Boogie (one of my favorite photographers). Born and raised in Belgrade, Boogie moved to New York in 1998. Boogie has quite the reputation now through his original work and his depiction (it’s all black and white) of Brooklyn gang life, skinheads, drug addicts and junkies. Now, he is visiting family and friends in Serbia, and he pops up with a blog post about how from here, life in New York feels like a bad dream, like a prison sentence. Here's a short excerpt, but it's worth reading the whole thing:

"Our friends live on the mountain of Kosmaj, in KORACICA village, an hour drive from Belgrade. He is French, born in Paris, she is from Belgrade but lived in Paris for 40 years. They came to Kosmaj to visit 8 years ago, and never left. It's obvious why.
We had a blast - amazing spaces, feeling of freedom, fresh air, friendly locals who took us into their house and served us rakija, chickens, goats, sheep, simple but great life. People who live there live a self-sustaining lifestyle, they produce their own food, brew their own booze, and just do some part time work for time to time.
Life is more physical, probably not easy, but people look happy and totally ok with themselves, they are kind to each other and to strangers ... complete opposite to the angry faces that you see in big cities, wheather New York or Belgrade."

Click on the links at the left side of the screen to read the whole story.

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