Collection manager:

Kristina Majcen
Trainee curator
kristina@trakoscan.hr

The Photography Collection is a valuable artistic unit and has significant documentary importance. The collection contains around 700 photographs (positives, negatives, slides) by Karlo Dragutin Drašković, the founder of artistic photography in Croatia. Karlo’s photographs were taken between 1894 and 1899 and are characterised by thoughtfully executed compositions, framing, and relationships of light and shadow, achieving an outstanding visual quality. Apart from motifs from his own estates (Trakošćan and Sellye) and those of other nobles, the collection preserves photographic records from Karlo’s travels through Dubrovnik and its hinterland, Kvarner, Budapest, Vienna, the Alps, and elsewhere. He captured individuals (family members, friends, villagers, passers-by) in relaxed or formal portrait poses, as well as engaging in activities (hunting, cycling, fairs, carriage rides, estate work). There are also depictions of animals, landscapes, architecture and other motifs. Of particular note are his photographs of stopped motion (jumps) and naturalistic portraits of people from the margins of society.

A smaller number of photographs were taken by Karlo’s mother, the painter Julijana Drašković née Erdödy, and likely by his uncles, Stjepan and Rudolf Erdödy. A smaller part of the collection consists of photographs by unknown authors.

The collection also includes about 150 photographs produced in professional photography workshops. These are individual and group portraits of Drašković family members, their relatives and friends. Most of these images date from the 1870s and 1880s. These photographic records were created in many renowned photographic studios, including Angerer, Löwy, and Adele in Vienna; Mayer, Alker, and Elinger in Pest; Kozics in Bratislava; as well as in Paris, Berlin, Venice, Zagreb, Opatija, and other cities.

Finally, the collection holds about 200 postcards depicting Trakošćan, dating from 1900 to the second half of the 20th century.