1 June – 17 June 2012

ZRC SAZU Atrium Ljubljana

The photographic exhibition, The First Slovene Popular Song Festivals by Edi Šelhaus, is a selection of the exhibition, The World of Music of the 60’s – on the 90^th Anniversary of the Photojournalist Edi Šelhaus, opened on 13 August 2009 at Ljubljana Castle (in 2009/2010 on view also at Bled Festival Hall and at the Slovenian Radio and Television hall, the Oton Župančič Library and the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia in Ljubljana) and was prepared by the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia (author Jožica Šparovec) to celebrate the 90^th anniversary of Edi Šelhaus, one of the legends of Slovene war and post-war photo journalism.

The present exhibition aims to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the first Slovene Popular Song Festival in Bled in 1962 which was in 1964 transferred to Ljubljana. The photos taken by Edi Šelhaus are made from the original negatives of the Šelhaus photographic collection and the collection of photojournalists of the newspaper Delo donated to the National Museum of Contemporary History by Šelhaus and Delo, the company which employed Šelhaus from 1958 to 1973 and still housed part of Šelhaus’s opus.

The exhibited photographs present moments of the golden age of Slovene Popular Songs: from the first three festivals between 1962 and 1964 in Bled and Ljubljana and two festivals from 1966 and 1971 in Ljubljana. Edi Šelhaus was one of the rare photojournalists who took photos of the first Slovene popular song festivals. It was typical of his work that he recorded also happening behind the stage and many of these photos were published in various publications in the frame of photo stories. The rare and also unique photos represent many persons of note from the Slovene world of music, singers, conductors and others, among them Marjana Deržaj, Majda Sepe, Stane Mancini, Jelka Cvetežar, Lado Leskovar, Beti Jurkovič, Matija Cerar, Rafko Irgolič, Nino Robič, Lidija Kodrič, Barbara Jarc, Katja Levstik, Elda Viler, Alenka Pinterič, Irena Kohont, Ivanka Kraševec, Peter Ambrož, Bratje (Brothers) Boštjančič, Oto Pestner, Alfi Nipič, Anton Marty, Bojan Adamič, Jože Privšek, Mario Rijavec, Jure Robežnik and others.

(Jožica Šparovec)

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