While working as a volunteer in a refugee camp in Varaždīn in Croatia in 1992 during the Balkan wars Panos photographer Björn Steinz met 6 year old Bosnian boy Elvis.

Though the two couldn’t communicate, they quickly became friends. Björn taught him how to ride a bicycle and photographed him standing on a field gun.

Over the ensuing 25 years Björn periodically remembered Elvis and thought of getting back in touch with him. Finally, in 2017, with the help of Radio Free Europe and an appeal for Elvis to get in touch broadcast on Bosnian television and on the RFERL Balkan Service web page, the two made contact and met in at Elvis’ house, 25 kilometres outside Sarajevo where he now lives with his family.

To view a short clip of their first meeting on the RFERL website, click on the play button below.

Björn is going to return to Bosnia to document Elvis’ life now in the context of the current situation in Bosnia and the experiences of a refugee who returned after the war.