JAKA IVANČIČ – SLOVENIA: A SYMPHONY OF VIEWS

The Monfort Gallery in Portorose invites you to view a series of documentary photographs with magical images of the Slovenian landscape in the fall and winter season. The author of the exhibition, Jaka Ivančič, named the selection of landscape motifs depicting the beauty of Slovenia and its Littoral region A Symphony of Views. A native of Ankaran, who has been working at Radio Capris for more than twenty years as a photographer, producer, graphic artist, website and social network manager, has recently been intensively devoting himself to landscape photography. He has received several awards for his photos, and they have been included in many exhibitions and selected for publication in various publications. National Geographic ranked his shot of snow-covered Bled among the best landscape photos of the year.

The exhibition, which was prepared by the Piran Coastal Galleries in cooperation with the Municipality of Piran and National Geographic Slovenia, was previously on display at the Ljubljana Castle. From June to September, over 40,000 visitors had the opportunity to see it. Arne Hodalič, an internationally renowned photographer and curator of the exhibition, succinctly wrote about Ivančič's photos: “When I see his photos, I often ask myself: How did he do it?"

Jaka Ivančič, Arne Hodalič and the representatives of the Municipality of Piran will be present at the opening, which will be held in the Monfort Gallery on Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 7 p.m. The opening of the exhibition will also be a prelude to the celebration of the “Piran Symphony" municipal celebration, which will take place on October 11, 2024, at 7 p.m. in the nearby Grando in Portorose.

Viewing of the exhibition is free for citizens of Slovenian Istrian municipalities.

Jaka Ivančič (Koper, 1979) has been involved in photography since childhood. He photographs various subjects. His favorite genre is landscape photography. After graduating from the Secondary Medical School in Koper, he studied at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering in Ljubljana. He often includes his hobbies, music, cuisine, and hiking in his photographic motifs. For him, the year 2015 marked a turning point as he participated in the EXPO in Milan with an exhibition about the culinary images of the Karst and Istria regions. His photos appear in many promotional publications of the Slovenian Tourist Organization. It was with various photographs of Slovenia that he became recognizable in the world. In 2018, National Geographic chose his photo as the “Photo of the Day", and less than a year later, his photo was included in the top 50 landscape photos.

Experienced photographers, such as myself, are often asked: “I urgently need a photograph from Slovenia… that lake or those beautiful hills with a waterfall in the background or…” I always answer: “That won’t work!” And why not? Because landscape photography is one of the most difficult tasks for a photographer. It takes a lot of time – an enormous amount of time, actually – because landscape photographs depend on a range of factors: the light, the weather conditions when the photograph is taken, the season, the place from where the photograph is taken, and many other things that may or may not happen. For instance, many of us have seen a wonderful photograph of Lake Bled just after it has been whitened by snow or the morning frost, with an orange-yellow sun rising dramatically somewhere on the distant horizon between illuminated clouds. This photograph then remains in our memory, setting a very high standard by which we judge other similar photographs of Bled, a standard that none of them can match. But Jaka Ivančič is a master of just that… Being in the right place at the right time! When I see his photographs, I often ask myself, “How did he manage to do that?” Even though I actually know the answer very well. In order to put together all of the unknowns we need for an excellent landscape photograph, the photographer must have a lot of luck, but also an infinite amount of patience, dedication, talent and knowledge; not least, he or she must have an abundance of time and energy and be willing to invest it in a single photograph. All of these elements are present in Ivančič’s photographs. But they are not just the statistical result of the listed factors; in them, one can sense the photographer’s genuine and pure love for photography and the process of taking photographs. The icing on the huge cake of landscape photography is made from a great deal of work and effort. Ivančič’s exceptional photographs from all over Slovenia have won awards at the most prestigious photography competitions, as well as being exhibited at numerous exhibitions and published in many publications. At the editorial office of the magazine National Geographic Slovenia, we are particularly proud of the article “Greetings from Slovenia”, which we published in August 2021. With Ivančič’s photos, of course! So next time you see a photograph of snow-covered Lake Bled with the sunrise in the distance, on the basis of which you set high visual standards that will be difficult to surpass, it will undoubtedly be a photo by Jaka Ivančič.

Curated by: Arne Hodalič