The graduation show of third-year students from the Department of Photography at VIST – Faculty of Applied Sciences, titled Traces, reflects on what remains – visible or invisible, physical or emotional, tangible or abstract.
The artists explore the various forms of traces left behind by individuals, events, relationships, places, or memories.
At the heart of the exhibition is the question of how individuals, as creators, experience nostalgia – through time, space, or society – and how these perceptions and traces shape our identity, worldview, and relationship to the past. The photographic works on display stem from personal experiences, social observations, and visual inquiries. Some adopt a reportage-documentary style, presenting stories of disappearing communities, traditions, or overlooked histories. Others explore inner states and the subtle imprints of emotions, thoughts, or traumas etched into the body and environment. Still others experiment with the medium of photography itself, seeking traces of light, movement, and time that the lens captures – or merely suggests.
The works intertwine documentary, introspective, conceptual, and poetic approaches. Underlying them all is the awareness that every trace – even an invisible one – carries a story, and that photography itself, as a medium of frozen moments, leaves its own imprint. Traces is thus a collection of visual echoes and personal reflections that mirror both intimate and broader social contexts. Each photograph invites the viewer to observe, reflect, and search for that which may no longer be present – but still lingers somewhere.
Patricija Mlakar, third-year student at VIST
*The Department of Photography at the Faculty of Applied Sciences (VIST) implements the only study programme that comprehensively covers photography and the placement of photography in other visual media, and extends to the field of video as well. The study programme has been implemented since 2009. In a creative environment, students are guided by experienced and skilled professionals who, based on their experience, knowledge and beliefs, open the doors to the world after graduation. At the conclusion of their studies, the students are professionally skilled, mature authors of visual images and receive a title equivalent to BA (Hons) Photography.
Free admission.
1. 7.–1. 8. 2025
Organisation: Kino Šiška and Faculty of Applied Sciences (VIST).
