Curator: Jožica Šparovec
Edi Šelhaus (Podkraj, 15.8.1919–6.3.2011, Medvode) is an undisputed master of Slovenian photojournalism and one of the most important Partisan and post-war photojournalists in Slovenia. He received several awards for his work, including the Petek Award for Lifetime Achievements (1973), the Tomšič Award for Lifetime Achievements (1979) and the Tomšič Award – Gold Medal for Best Journalistic Achievements (1985).
His rich and important photographic opus comprises more than 60 years of life (between 1944 and 2007) in Slovenia, former Yugoslavia and abroad, where he especially documented life of Slovenes living in the Trieste territory and in Austrian Carinthia. In 2000, Šelhaus gifted his rich photographic opus from the post-war period (about 130,000 shots) to the National Museum of Contemporary History. His work is not part of just his post-war fonds donated in 2000, but is also included in three other collections: 1,038 images made during WW2 between 1944 and 1945 are part of the Current Materials Collection; around 1,000 negatives are part of the Foto Slovenija Collection, covering the period after the end of World War II, from March 1945 to May 1946, while around 40,000 of Šelhaus’ shots from the period between 1958 and 1972 are part of the extensive photojournalistic collection of the Delo newspaper, donated to the Museum in 2009.
Daily displays of police violence on the streets of Trieste during the arrival of the Allied Commission, Trieste, Piazza Goldoni, 15 March 1946. Inv. no.: ES-301/21.
Boris Pahor, a Slovenian writer from Trieste, visiting the editorial office of Slovenski poročevalec, Ljubljana, May 1958. Inv. no.: ES-237/4.
Brane Oblak in action during the football match of the European Cup at the Bežigrad stadium between Olimpija and Benfica, Ljubljana, 1971. Inv. no.: ES-1637/31.
Parents, brothers and sisters of Slovenian soldiers who served in the JLA at a rally demanding their return home, Ljubljana, 6 July 1991. Inv. no.: ES-304/2.
Journalist Ivo Štandeker with his dog two months before his death and photojournalists Diego Andrés Gómez and Tone Stojko, Ljubljana, April 1992. Inv. no.: ES-296/13.