Photography: Of Nation and Mountains
Photography: Of Nation and Mountains

Summary/Abstract: In his article the author presents ways in which in the last two centuries mountain photography was employed by Slovenians in establishing their national identity or sentiment. He points out the similar, yet also different development of realism in painting, on the one hand, and, on the other, the historical development of photography. He furthermore explores history of photography and of mountain photography in particular, and argues that in the case of Slovenia for a variety of reasons the mountains acquired a very special value. He notes that other countries too, possessed similar loci that played a similar role in similar ways but that they have never attained a similar decisive role as the mountains in Slovenia. The author points out that the photographic representation of mountains is but one of the instances of an imaginary employment of photography, for in the last few decades the representations of mountains could be found on a series of symbolic national objects, such as provisional Slovenian currency, the national flag, and the passport.

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