You are warmly invited to the opening of Iztok Zupan’s photography exhibition “When Light Speaks”, taking place on Thursday, 10 September 2026, at 6.00 pm at the Caserma Gallery in the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park.
Iztok Zupan (1969) is an amateur photographer from Slovenian Istria. He was born in Maribor, spent his childhood in Slovenska Bistrica and completed secondary school in Ljubljana. His life journey later brought him to the Slovenian coast, where he found his home – and a landscape to which he returns time and again with his camera.
He first encountered photography towards the end of secondary school. Later, his work occasionally required photographic documentation. His first photographs were primarily a record of what he saw. It was only many years later, towards the end of his professional career, that photography became something more: a way of seeing, of connecting with nature and of preserving moments that might otherwise pass unnoticed.
He began with a simple compact camera. Through it, he discovered birds and other wildlife and gradually came to realise that nature reveals most to those who know how to wait. With every new morning spent in the field, his connection with photography grew stronger. Over time, he upgraded his equipment, but above all refined his eye, devoting himself increasingly to photographing birds and life in wetlands.
He is most closely connected with the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park, particularly Fontanigge. He also photographs at the Škocjanski Zatok Nature Reserve and the Strunjan Salt Pans, yet it is Fontanigge that keeps calling him back. There, among the remains of salt workers’ houses, abandoned paths and calm mirrors of water, time seems to move differently. The landscape changes with every cloud and every shift of light. Something that was almost invisible only a moment before suddenly begins to glow – a bird above the water, a reflection in a salt pan, a trace of former life in a crumbling wall.
After retiring, he devoted himself to photography even more intensely. Alongside nature, he is also drawn to concert photography, where, instead of the silence of wetlands, he captures the energy of the stage, the glow of spotlights and the brief, unrepeatable expressions of musicians.
At first glance, these may seem like two very different worlds. In reality, they are connected by the same thing: a sense for the right moment. Iztok Zupan does not simply photograph what he sees. He waits for that instant when space, light and life briefly speak together.
The photographs in this exhibition are the result of patience, respect for nature and an ability to notice what others often pass by. They are an invitation to stop, look more slowly and discover something in a familiar landscape that we may never have noticed before.
We warmly invite you to pause, slow your gaze and discover the Sečovlje Salt Pans through the lens of Iztok Zupan.
Organizer: Sečovlje Salina Nature Park
