Photography Exhibition of Jaka Ivančič
You are invited to the opening of the photography exhibition by Jaka Ivančič titled “Salt is the Memory of the Sea” in the open-air gallery Arkade Bernardin on Wednesday, 17 June 2026, at 8:00 p.m..
Music: Denis Horvat (piano), DJ Benjamin Shock (presentation of the composition Fleur de Sel, created in collaboration with the Abakkum Institute), an excerpt from the composition Solinarka (Brane Zorman, Irena Pivka, Maja Bjelica; CONA Institute and Muzofil Association)
Every grain of salt carries within it the traces of waves and wind, the breath of the moon and the radiance of the sun. When the sea evaporates, the water rises back to the sky, while the salt remains behind as a memory that refuses to disappear. The sea can never truly stay in the palm of the hand, yet salt leaves its presence everywhere: on the skin and on the tongue, on stones and in the salt fields, in the landscape and in the eyes of those who know how to recognise its ever-changing light and colour.
Through the photographs of Jaka Ivančič, the exhibition reveals the salt pans as a landscape of many faces. In the stillness of reflective waters and the geometry of winding channels, among halophytic plants, solitary salt workers’ houses and birds drifting above the flats, moments of silence intertwine with reflections of the sky and subtle movements of light. These photographs are more than portrayals of a landscape. They are intimate impressions of the bond between nature and humankind — a bond that, like salt itself, lives in rhythm with the sea.
Text: Ines Drame
Organizer: Portorož Tourist Association
In cooperation with: Municipality of Piran, Public Company Okolje Piran, St. Bernardin Resort Portorož, Soline d.o.o. and Anbot Piran Association.
Through the eyes of Jaka Ivančič
An Atmosphere of His Own
Masterful use of light, a strong sense of space and a distinctive visual expression are among the qualities that define Jaka Ivančič, a landscape, travel and commercial photographer from Koper. His highly atmospheric images of Slovenian and foreign landscapes have been published in numerous national and international publications.
Exhibitions and Books
One of his most acclaimed exhibitions, Slovenia: A Symphony of Views, prepared in cooperation with National Geographic Slovenia, was seen by more than 40,000 visitors at Ljubljana Castle in 2024. It was later also presented in Portorož. Jaka Ivančič is also the co-author of the photographic monograph Slovenia: Land of Contrasts, published in 2025. The accompanying texts were written by Davorin Tome.
Award-Winning Images
For the past 15 years, Jaka Ivančič has been photographing the salt pans in different seasons, from different viewpoints and in changing light conditions. For his work, he has received numerous national and international awards. In 2024, the Municipality of Piran presented him with the Coat of Arms of Excellence in Tourism for his contribution to the visibility and promotion of the area.
Selected Awards of Photographer Jaka Ivančič
- National Geographic World’s 50 Best Landscape Photos, 2018
- One Eyeland World’s Top 10 Landscape Photographers, 2018 and 2019
- International Photography Awards, Architecture category, winner, 2019
- Sarajevo Photography Awards, Landscape category, winner, 2022
- Annual Photography Awards, Nature category, winner, 2025
The photographer's tribute to the salt pans
At the Edge of the Mediterranean
In the Sečovlje Salt Pans, located at the northernmost edge of the Mediterranean, sea, salt, wind, birds, people and the distant silhouettes of snow-covered mountains come together. This selection of eleven photographs from the past 15 years is Jaka Ivančič’s tribute to this unique landscape.
Here, where the Mediterranean world slowly opens towards the interior of Europe, winter days often reveal snow-covered pre-Alpine and Alpine peaks rising in the distance above the salt fields. Rare visual connections emerge — between sea and high mountains, salt and snow, the Mediterranean and the continent.
The Heritage of Salt-Making
The exhibition also includes scenes from Lera, the active part of the salt pans, where salt workers still produce salt in the traditional way and keep the living heritage of the landscape alive. It also touches upon Fontanigge, the abandoned part of the salt pans, where the remains of salt-making architecture are slowly being reclaimed by nature. Where human labour once shaped the land, a valuable natural habitat for birds and other animal species is now taking form.
A Balance of Contrasts
Jaka Ivančič’s photographic series is a story of the interweaving of natural and cultural landscapes. Through his lens, the salt pans appear as a place where balance is constantly being renewed: between people and nature, abandonment and regeneration, tradition and wilderness, sea and mountains.
The exhibition invites us to experience the salt pans slowly — as a place that changes not only with the seasons, but also with perspective: from the ground and from the air, in intimate details of the salt-making landscape and in wide, open views.
Where Waters Touch
Where saltwater and freshwater intertwine, a unique living landscape unfolds.
Wetlands of the Sečovlje Salt Pans near the Dragonja River
The sea of tranquility
V solinskih kanalih se morje umiri. Pokrajina ustvari svojo tišino.
Krajinski park Sečoveljske soline.
Gazing at the sky
A shallow basin between the channels and salt pools shelters the brine from rain.
The fossa for storing mother brine
Drawn by Hand
Between the rails and the dark petola layer, human hands trace the white essence of salt-making.
Traditional salt harvest
Eye to eye with crystals
At sunrise, the sea turns into a radiant mirror of salt crystals.
A salt-maker with a gavero – a solid wooden rake for salt gathering
Time ripens in light
In the salt pans, the sun is always woven into life. Its rays bring nature back among the stone walls.
An abandoned salt workers’ house.
The stillness of what it was
Salt-making leaves behind a different landscape. Pools once filled by the sea become stages of silence.
Fontanigge – the abandoned part of the Sečovlje Salt Pans.
When nature blushes
In autumn, the vegetation in the salt pans turns red. The landscape remembers the people.
Salt-loving plants in the Sečovlje Salt Pans
Rhythm of an in-between world
The salt pans are a world between sea and land. Their appearance shifts with the changing seasons.
Autumn view of the Sečovlje Salt Pans
Shared horizons
How can snow in the Alps, salt from the Adriatic Sea, and wetland birds meet within the same view? Simply natural.
Greater flamingos wintering in the Sečovlje Salina Nature Park
Photo gallery
Organizer: Portorož Tourist Board in cooperation with: Municipality of Piran, Okolje Piran Public Company, St. Bernardin Resort Portorož, Soline d.o.o., and Anbot Piran Association.
