Dušan Letnar

Dušan Letnar (1952) remains committed to the slow gaze of analogue photography, where time itself becomes an ally of the image. His photographic process is deliberate—as though with every frame he seeks to preserve something that might otherwise quietly slip away unnoticed. In recent years, he has focused on the industrial heritage of the former Kamnik gunpowder factory; the series Barutana, prepared for the Kamfest festival in 2020, reveals fragments of space layered with stories of labour, memory, and transience. Alongside this, he also explores the ethnographic diversity of the surrounding region, recognising in small scenes a broader narrative about the life of the community.

Letnar remains a faithful chronicler of everyday life in Kamnik—not the spectacular, but the quiet and almost imperceptible. His photographs breathe with the people and places they portray: shepherds, neighbours, streets, and houses. In 2015, he presented the series Shepherds of Velika Planina at the Gallery of the Kamnik Cultural Centre, where tradition intertwines with the contemporary moment. With the series Nests (2017), exhibited at the Peter Rauch Pavilion in the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova in Ljubljana, he created a subtle visual metaphor of home, shelter, and impermanence.

A more intimate view into the family environment emerged in the series Iva (2018), where social and domestic themes evolve into an almost meditative narrative of closeness. His long-term project My Neighbours, presented in 2020 at the Gallery of the Kamnik Cultural Centre, is a quiet observation of life on the edge of town—an observation of small habits, glances, and moments that together form the pulse of a community. In the series Mimonoše (2021), Pulfrfabrka (2024), and Extempore (2024), he continues his exploration of space and the human presence, remaining faithful to his restrained visual language and sensitivity to detail.

Dušan Letnar’s photography is not merely documentary, but a quiet dialogue with time—with people, places, and the traces they leave behind. He presents his work in solo and numerous group exhibitions. Since 2005, he has been a member of the Kamnik Photo Club /curator Saša Bučan/.