Ilic’s first examples of video art were created in collaboration with Chris Springhall under the name Doublehead, in 1995. What began as a 35mm stock test, instigated by Chris Springhall, evolved into video portraiture when Ilic discovered the existence of the video compact disc. The VCD made it possible to encode and loop images to a disc to create the illusion of perpetual movement. VCD democratised moving image art by freeing the work from the confines of a gallery installation, large playback machines and video projectors. Moving image art could now be shown by anyone at home willing to buy a VCD player.

The duo secured funding from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to create a series of seven ‘Living Portraits’. The portraits were first shown to the public at the Cubitt Gallery, London, in 1996 on the first plasma screens to arrive in the UK. Even at this early stage, Ilic’s fascination with issues around identity, anxiety, vulnerability and forms of containment was evident in his conceptual contribution to Living Portraits.

In 1998 Ilic and Springhall parted company. Ilic continued working on what he now called moving image photography and, in 2000, he created a series of seven moving photographs for release under his newly created O art label. The series was titled ‘Sophie Moving Photographs’.

Ilic continued to explore the nature of separation and interaction between subject and viewer in the Sophie Moving Photographs series. He was particularly intrigued by the effect of movement and direct address in creating the illusion of the subject being somehow present in the viewer’s space. During the making of the moving photographs, Ilic directed Sophie Weston to be conscious of the camera as someone watching her, someone she could have power over.