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An Arsenal of Memories or an Intimate Landscape? Franc Ferjan and Stereo Photography
3 November 2022 - 22 January 2023
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An Arsenal of Memories or an Intimate Landscape? Franc Ferjan and Stereo Photography

3 November 2022 – 22 January 2023
Moderna galerija MG+ 

After 16 years, Moderna galerija is again staging an exhibition of work by Franc Ferjan, an amateur photographer from the first half of the 20th century. Based on the recently discovered body of 1,700 of his black-and-white and color stereo slides and negatives, this show complements the 2006 exhibition entitled Franc Ferjan (1885–1964). A Photographer of Private and Social Reality.

As Lara Štrumej, the curator of both Ferjan exhibitions, points out, the recently discovered works provide us with new insights into Ferjan’s creative production, particularly in the period between 1918 and 1945, when most of his stereo photographs were taken. Ferjan was particularly drawn to light in its innumerable manifestations, striving to represent it as accurately as possible rather than trying to create atmospheric effects. Numerous images of rivers, lakes, streams, and waterfalls foreground sunlight playing on or bouncing off the water surfaces, pictures of snow-covered trees reproduce the dazzling brilliance of winter light, and nighttime street scenes evidence the photographer’s technical skill. His stereo slides of flowers, fruits, and vegetables, mostly dating from the war period (1940–1945), show his interest in the plasticity of objects and his focus on details and colors.

Eszter Polonyi, an expert on the history of perception, media theory, and intermedia, sees Ferjan’s shift from black-and-white to color stereoscopic photography as a qualitative contribution to vision, intensifying the experience of sight. This may well have been his way of trying to expand his sensory perception after he lost his hearing. As Polonyi put it, “Photography promised him sensory fulfilment not so much through the aesthetic discourse (…), but as a medium equally invested in the language and techniques of experimental optics, chemistry, and physics.”

The exhibition presents scans of 152 of Ferjan’s stereo slides in five videos, according prominence to the subjects he focused on from 1920 to virtually the end of his life, naming them “water” (landscape with water), “winter” (landscape in wintertime), “night” (street scenes at night), “memory” (street scenes), and color still lifes. Also included in the exhibition are three stereoscopes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, on loan from the Slovenian School Museum, the Slovenian Cinematheque, and the Technical Museum of Slovenia, which allow visitors to experience viewing three of Ferjan’s stereo slides as they were originally intended to be viewed.

A catalogue was published to coincide with the exhibition. It includes 17 reproductions of black-and-white and color stereo slides and two texts written by Lara Štrumej and Eszter Polonyi respectively.

Curator: Lara Štrumej

 
Franc Ferjan, Torrential River, black-and-white stereo slide, c. 1915–1920.
Franc Ferjan, Izidora’s Jewelry next to the Jewelry Box, color stereo slide,1943. *The title is from Ferjan’s list of color stereo slides.
Franc Ferjan, Riverbank, black-and-white stereo slide, c. 1920–1930.
Franc Ferjan, Lake Bohinj, black-and-white stereo slide, c. 1920–1930.
Franc Ferjan, Street in Ljubljana, black-and-white stereo slide, c. 1930–1935.
Franc Ferjan, Street in Ljubljana, black-and-white stereo slide, c. 1920–1930.
Franc Ferjan, Snow-Covered Trees, black-and-white stereo slide, c. 1925–1935.
Franc Ferjan, Water Surface with Reflections, black-and-white stereo slide, c. 1920–1930.
Franc Ferjan, Frozen Waterfall, black-and-white stereo slide, c. 1920–1930.
Franc Ferjan, Cabbage in a Basket, Peppers of Different Colors (on the Table in the Kitchen on Linoleum), 1942, color stereo slide. *The title is from Ferjan’s list of color stereo slides.