Curator: Katarina Jurjavčič

The Colour Transparencies Collection is extensive, it consists of 316 items. In the last decade, the National Museum of Contemporary History has begun to review and valorise the production of colour transparencies that were created up to the end of 1945.
Examining colour images, it was discovered that they had been completely neglected, as the majority of them had no information on the event depicted, place, or author. Based on historical facts, it was deduced who the people in the photographs were, where the photographs were taken, while the most arduous work was to determine the time of the taking of the photograph. In a broader sense, Partisan and Home Guard photographs date between 1944 and 1945, and Italian photographs between the years 1941 and 1943. Colour transparencies were divided based on the origin into four sections: Italian, German, Partisan and Home Guard origin.

The authors of the majority of the photographs are unknown. It assumed, based on storytelling, that photographs depicting the Italian occupation of Ljubljana were made by Dr Jakob Prešen. These images show the invading Italian army in Ljubljana and snippets from life in the city. Colour images of German origin show the area of Styria, especially the events in the city of Ptuj and its surroundings, events along the Drava River, and images of the graves of German soldiers and memorials at Ljubljana Žale cemetery and cemetery in Kranj. The largest part of the collection is of Partisan origin.