History Through the Lens is an exhibition of photographs opened at the CHF branch office in Dubrovnik to mark the 70th anniversary of the Slobodna Dalmacija newspaper. On hand for the opening of the exhibition, along with retired Dubrovnik journalist Mato Jerinić, were Feđa Klarić and Damir Šarić of Split’s Slobodna Dalmacija.
History Through the Lens is an exhibition of photographs opened at the Croatian Heritage Foundation’s branch office in the historical core of Dubrovnik on June 19th to mark the 70th anniversary of the Slobodna Dalmacija newspaper.
“I am very pleased that we are able to host such a beautiful and important exhibition and to celebrate 70 years of Slobodna Dalmacija,” said Maja Mozara, the head of the CHF office in Dubrovnik.
On hand for the opening of the exhibition, along with retired Dubrovnik journalist Mato Jerinić, were Feđa Klarić and Damir Šarić of the Split-based Slobodna Dalmacija newspaper.
“I am delighted to have been able to work with Feđa Klarić, the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, in selecting the photographs for this 70th anniversary exhibition and monograph. Journalists and photo reporters are—as you know—a pair, just as photos and articles are inseparable. Photographs are, however, somewhat more powerful and longer-lived than our articles. The text is forgotten, but the photo is still valuable thirty years down the road. News photos are not perfect bodies, but they do possess all that an art photo does not, and that is life. Without these people they would not make sense, without people newspapers and journalism would also not make sense,” noted Damir Šarić.
“The many people who have observed that over recent years and decades the best photography to be found in daily newspapers in this part of Southeast Europe were those on the pages of Slobodna Dalmacija have found a strong affirmation in this exhibition, because this is the first time that a daily newspaper has staged a retrospective of its photographs that are both exceptional and meet the most stringent criteria of international journalism. They possess that which both corresponds to reality and leaves no one indifferent; they ennoble people and create solidarity among journalists with all those who are threatened, persecuted and disenfranchised. In the history of Slobodna Dalmacija photography this city has given many figures—people like Petar Jović, who was among the first, Tonći Plazibat, the youngest among them and, of course—a pillar among them—Milo Kovač,” said Feđa Klarić.
“I am particularly happy on this occasion to be able to say a few words about Dubrovnik’s photo reporters who developed and entered the world of photo journalism during my time as the head of the Slobodna Dalmacija correspondent bureau. I learned from people like Milo Kovač, Željko Tutnjević, Tonći Plazibat and Zvonimir Pandža that a photo reporter was a journalist with a camera and I learned about having a passion for one’s profession. True photo reporters are absorbed by their work, enamoured of it, constantly on the move. So many times they find themselves in places we journalists often did not visit. Where life is, therefore, is where they are,” noted Mato Jerinić in opening the exhibition, open through to the end of the week.
History through the lens of Slobodna Dalmacija
