National Geographic - Rarely seen

How often do you see something genuinely new with your own eyes? How often do you have an opportunity to walk through previously unknown landscapes or witness a unique event? The photographers of National Geographic are among the selected few who have the opportunity, or luck, to experience this often.

According to renowned National Geographic photographer Stephen Alvarez, ever since the invention of the camera, the role of the photographer has been to make the unknown known. The photographers who set out for the American West at the end of the 19th century, for instance, were able to provide irrefutable evidence that landscapes such as people had previously only painted in their imaginations really existed, thus contributing to the creation of the first national parks. Photographers became regular members of various expeditions into the unknown and documented important scientific findings. National Geographic photographers accepted this role with open arms, enabling them to make an enormous contribution to the deepening of our knowledge about the world.

Some photographs reveal the hidden wonders of the world, such as the trails of light drawn in the forest by fireflies, which are too weak to be seen by the naked eye but can be captured by a photograph. Sometimes the conditions in which photographers work are extremely dangerous. Few people would want to be in the close vicinity of an erupting volcano or a raging tornado, but photographers driven to the extreme limits by their irrepressible passion enable us to experience these phenomena indirectly. A photograph by Slovenian photographer and tornado hunter Mark Korošc is one example. In Julesburg, Colorado, in May 2013, he captured a supercell storm cloud in his lens, creating a work that was later to be selected as the best photograph among 18,000 entries to the National Geographic Traveler photography competition. This photograph is one of the attractions of this year’s exhibition.

The exhibition Rarely Seen was created on the basis of a selection of photographs belonging to the National Geographic Society in Washington, and is part of their range of so-called travelling photography exhibitions. Its aim is to offer something new, unknown, untamed, breathtaking; or something familiar and frequently seen but shown in a different, fresh way. The selected photographs of special places, incredible natural phenomena and rare events came about either by happy coincidence – a first-rate photographer being in the right place at the right time – or as the fruit of weeks, months or even years of careful planning. May they serve as a reminder of how beautiful and yet fragile our world is.

Exhibition Curator: Arne Hodalič