Cover – LIFE Magazine, July 1991

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I spent about three months in Medjugorje, photographing pilgrims who came from all continents. Unlike the arrogant foreign tourists who were visiting Yugoslavia at the time, these were quiet, humble, and dignified people, who often sang spiritual songs softly late into the night.

Thanks to the French agency Gamma Presse Images and its director at the time, Floris de Bonneville—who told me at our very first meeting that their archive contained more than two thousand photographs from Medjugorje, but that my images stood out above the rest—my photo essay on this phenomenon was published by many magazines around the world. Turistkomerc from Zagreb also published a small photo monograph in sixteen languages, in a print run of over one hundred thousand copies.

Later, after I began working with Gamma, this photograph was featured on the cover of the renowned magazine Life. The agency director was very proud of that achievement, but he also told me—almost apologetically—that American magazines paid only three thousand dollars for a cover image. He did not know that, at the time, this represented a small fortune for me.