Among the four founders of Živi Atelje DK are two photographers and we started with big plans for photography. Well, as happens in life, our light-writing only slowly limped along many other programs and activities. Works on the darkroom started ambitiously in 2016. By 2022 we managed to clear out space to make that small darkroom. Yet, we still lack the person or team with the winning combination of time, energy and vision to make it into a fully functional space and expand on our social reach through the medium of analogue photography.
However, despite all the hiccups, during the past several years we managed to successfully organize and run several workshops and many photographic exhibitions. We hosted guest mentors and exhibitions of photographers from the region: Belgrade, Čakovec, Ljubljana, Sisak, Rijeka, Rovinj, covering a range of topics and techniques – psychology of seeing, storytelling and photographic narratives, cyanotype, pin-hole (camera obscura), postcards and zin making.
Photography is the pillar of our, now several years-long, inspiring and enriching cooperation with like-minded organizations in the neighborhood of Črnomerec: Office for Photography (Gallery Spot) in Čanićeva street and with Gallery VN further to the west on Ilica street. Our members have participated in close cooperation with Pannafoto Institute in Jakarta, Indonesia since even before 2015, and Gallery Jakopič in Ljubljana, Slovenia, as part of photographic mentoring program “Up Close” (Od Blizu) since 2018.