While balancing on the slippery, shimmering stones of the breathtaking bridge, with the cold waters of the Neretva River shimmering far below, he took his last breath. He leaped from the bridge, his hands and feet stiff like the wings of a bird, without looking up or down.
His descent lasts only a few seconds, but the audience surrounding him on the bridge has time to say something. After disappearing beneath the surface, he reappears and swims back to shore. He climbs back up to the bridge.
With his plunge in the southern Bosnian city of Mostar, Amir and his friends from the local diving club are honoring a tradition that goes back hundreds of years. Keeping the passage over the bridge clean is one of the things we are doing.
He says that they are the caretakers of the bridge.
Around 100 years after it was built, the first recorded dive from the Old Bridge in Mostar took place. The city has hosted an annual summer diving competition for over 50 years.
This stunt requires a lot of courage as it varies with the river's height. As he ascends from the river to the bridge, he has another task as he walks past picturesque streets and musicians in the bazaar. He has a hat in his hand.
He was still balancing on the edge of the bridge when he extended his arm towards the crowd. I need to raise funds for our club.
When I traveled to Bosnia with the photographer Alessio Mamo in July 2021, a lot of our trip took place in the shadow of the violence that tore through the region in the 1990's.
We met a young generation of Bosnians, Serbians, Kosovars, Montenegrins and Macedonians who commemorated the killing of 8000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.
We went to Mostar, the bridge city, after driving to Sarajevo.
Many Bosnians feared that the country was on the verge of being torn apart once more, but now they are less worried. The bridge divers in Mostar offer a sense of wonder. I had previously seen them in a documentary, but it was only after I arrived at the beautiful bridge that I was able to fully understand its architectural splendor and the value of the diving tradition.
When the bridge was destroyed by the Croats in 1993, it was a blow to the Bosnian Muslim culture. A group of divers replaced a platform with a makeshift gangway.
I met him when he was 24 years old. Admir Delic, who was 18 years old at the time, saw his peers dive from the platform and felt compelled to join them.
Admir told me that diving from the gangway was much more dangerous. It was necessary to take a run-up with the risk of injury. He says that every dive requires the utmost concentration.
Admir says there are days when he dives as many as 10 or 12 times. He sips coffee in the lounge while I talk to him. There are paintings and pictures of the bridge in different eras behind him.
He says he felt obliged to dive as a young man. All of us males had to do it one day. Those who never stopped were me. My job is mine.
The old bridge is a replica. Its reconstruction, which made use of Ottoman-era techniques, was completed in 2004.
Admir is going to take his last dive as the sun sets. The man has already retired. A young guardian is relaxing in a bar with a group of tourists while he listens to some music.
Bellingreri is a reporter. Her work can be seen on social media.
Mamo is an Italian photographer. His work can be seen on social media.
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