Tara National Park with the Drina River Canyon

Irene Becker is culture, travel and doucumentary freelance photographer based in Budapest, Hungary.
Degree earned at Academy of Arts – University of Novi Sad at the Department of Music

Her images have appeared in brochures, annual reports, billboards, books, magazines, web sites, exhibit spaces, greeting cards, and have been featured in fine art gallery exhibits. Irene Becker award-winning images can be found in individual collections of photo lovers worldwide.

    Website: www.irenebecker.eu      

Serbia is not a typical tourist destination. But if we take the time to discover it, we will find fantastic places.

It was chance that brought us to Serbia t together for the first time. I found Serbia’s most famous trombone festival while surfing on the internet. We thought, while we’re here, we might as well take a look around the area. That is how we ended up in Tara . As outsiders, we contacted the supervising management of the national park area, and asked them to give us advice and information on what is important or interesting to look at as photographers. That is how we came in contact with Boriša Čolić who was very happy to see foreign photographers. During our conversation, he invited us to visit again another time. We have lived with this invitation many times, to enjoy the hospitality of the Tara area and national park.

Tara is Serbia’s westernmost projection, a section of mountains partly encircled by the Drina. It is approximately 50 km long and about 22 km wide, with an area of 183 km2. It’s average altitude is 1200m, therefore it would be classified as central highlands. There are certain points when nearly 1000 meter depth is yawning below us. In the Drina canyons, in certain areas the river is no wider than 100 meters, and 7-800 meter-high cliffs tower above us.

The Serbian spruce or “Pančićeva Omorika” is one of the unique qualities of the mountains, as they only grow in this area. The spruce got is name from Josip Pančić, the explorer who first described the tree in 1855.

Action was taken in 1950 to declare the area protected, but the founding of the national park was only accomplished in 1981. The area which has been declared a national park is 19. 175 ha large.

Dragana Kostica

Writer. Blogger. Traveler. Researcher. Electronic Music Lover.