Božo Štajer: The World of Saltpan

The exhibition Božo Štajer: The World of Saltpans was created in cooperation between the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia, the Maritime Museum "Sergej Mašera" Piran and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, OE Piran. The exhibition was opened at the Museum of Saltworks on 13 June 2022. 

The exhibition is part of the stunning legacy of the master photographer Božo Štajer, which has been held by the National Museum of Contemporary History of Slovenia since 2011. 

Božo Štajer was a highly successful and internationally renowned photographer. Among other things, he had his own photography business in Kranj, was a photojournalist in the Information Bureau of the Presidency of the Government of the People's Republic of Slovenia (PV LRS) and he was a head of the laboratory in the newly established photography section of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana (SAZU). A large part of his legacy are also photographs of film and film shoots during the period when he worked for Triglav Film.

The exhibition Božo Štajer: The World of the Salt Pans comprises 19 photographs from a series of sixty taken by the photographer in the area of the salt pans in Sečovlje and Fazan in Lucija in 1954. The photographs show the landscape of the salt pans, the salt workers, and the work and life in the salt pans. One of the photographs was used for the front cover page of the salt-working textbook Sol i Morske solane, published in 1954.

This part of the legacy of the photographic collection of Božo Štajer is also invaluable in the context of the salt pans heritage, as it documents the last active periods of the unique interplay of work and life in the area of the Piran salt pans. 

The exhibition was on display at the Museum of Saltmaing from 13 June 2022 to 31 October 2022 and at the Maritime Museum in Piran from 22 December 2022 to 31st March 2023.

Selection of photographs: Andreja Zupanec Bajželj
Text: Andreja Zupanec Bajželj, Matjaž Kljun, Veronika Bjelica
Photographs from the collections of: National Museum of Contemporary History
Photographer: Božo Štajer
Design: Tomaž Perme
Photo editing: Sarah Poženel, Sašo Kovačič
Language editing: Henrik Ciglič 
Translation: Henrik Ciglič, Daniela Milotti 
Technical assistance with exhibition set-up: Marko Goljuf in Leonora Kortnik