Exhibition “Between Two Empires: Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Photographs of František Topič, 1885–1919” Opened at the Museum of the Cetina Region – Sinj
On Friday, November 14, 2025, the exhibition “Between Two Empires: Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Photographs of František Topič, 1885–1919”, curated by Mirsad Sijarić and Zijah Gafić, was officially opened at the Museum of the Cetina Region – Sinj.
Since its founding, the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina has systematically collected, processed, and archived photographs, negatives, and films, alongside its core museological and research activities in archaeology, ethnology, and natural sciences. This extensive collection forms an essential foundation for any serious study of the history of photography in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Among this vast archive, a particularly prominent place is held by the rare collection of over 6,000 glass plate negatives dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Such extremely valuable, delicate, and therefore vulnerable collections are prioritized and receive special attention in the processes of restoration, conservation, and digitization. The largest and most significant part of this collection is a corpus of approximately 5,000 negatives attributed to one of the most prominent pioneers of photography in Bosnia and Herzegovina – František Topič, a Czech who spent a significant part of his professional life at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, first as an archival clerk and later as librarian, secretary, and photographer.
Alongside the exhibition, a photo monograph of the same name will be presented, published by the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, containing part of this valuable collection of glass plate photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. František Topič, the museum photographer at the time, captured countless details – costumes, customs, ceremonial occasions, and everyday life of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina – in photographs that today represent an invaluable cultural heritage of our country.