FRANKO MLADEN-Solkan
The artists will be presented at the opening ceremony by the writer and journalist Andrea Bellavite and Slovenian photographer Miha Godec .
Mladen Franko (1958) from Solkan spent his childhood near Sochi and in the Trnovo forest, where he developed a deep connection with nature. He studied in Ljubljana and then in the USA, where he received his doctorate in chemical analysis with laser spectroscopy, which brought him even closer to understanding light-the key element of photography.
He first encountered photography in high school and was introduced to it by his father Matija, an amateur photographer. During his studies, he devoted himself to black-and-white photography, with Egon Kashe and Jaka Bregar as his inspiration. Later, due to his postgraduate studies and trainings in the Netherlands and Japan, he abandoned photography for a while, but in recent years he has been devoting himself more and more to it.
As an amateur photographer, he published in the magazines Ona, evening and bookmaking (Serbia), contributed photographs to TV Koper, and provided textbooks and study materials in the field of Environmental Protection. After years of work at the Jozef Stefan Institute, he returned to Gorizia with the arrival of the University of Nova Gorica.
In Ljubljana, in his spare time, he devoted himself to photographing the Ljubljana marshes, which is presented in his photographic exhibition. This exhibition tells the story from the first mists of the morning to dramatic storms and serene scenes of nature, including cranes, a mountain field and salt pans. These motifs symbolize his return to the sea and openness to new challenges at the conclusion of his career.
The exhibition, organized in joint cooperation between the Cultural Center in Gorizia, the foundation of the University of Nova Gorica and the cultural cooperative Maja (within the framework of the project "Chedermaci of today"), with the patronage of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, will be open until 21. in March 2025, according to the following schedule : (Monday to Friday) from 9.30 to 12.30 and from 15.30 to 18.00, and in the evening during various cultural events.
FRANKO MLADEN – Solkan
Umetnika bosta na otvoritveni slovesnosti predstavila goriški pisatelj in novinar Andrea Bellavite in slovenski fotograf Miha Godec .
Mladen Franko (1958) iz Solkana je otroštvo preživljal ob Soči in v Trnovskem gozdu, kjer je razvil globoko povezanost z naravo. Študiral je v Ljubljani in nato v ZDA, kjer je doktoriral iz kemijske analize z lasersko spektroskopijo, kar ga je še bolj približalo razumevanju svetlobe – ključnega elementa fotografije.
S fotografijo se je prvič srečal že v srednji šoli, vanjo pa ga je uvedel oče Matija, ljubiteljski fotograf. Med študijem se je posvečal črno-beli fotografiji, pri čemer sta mu bila v navdih Egon Kaše in Jaka Bregar. Kasneje je zaradi podiplomskega študija in izobraževanj na Nizozemskem ter Japonskem fotografijo za nekaj časa opustil, a se ji v zadnjih letih vse bolj posveča.
Kot ljubiteljski fotograf je objavljal v revijah Ona, Večer in Knjiženstvo (Srbija), prispeval fotografije za TV Koper ter slikovno opremil učbenike in študijsko gradivo s področja varstva okolja. Po letih dela na Institutu Jožef Stefan se je s prihodom Univerze v Novi Gorici vrnil na Goriško.
V Ljubljani se je v prostem času posvečal fotografiranju Ljubljanskega barja, kar je predstavljeno v njegovi fotografski razstavi. Ta razstava pripoveduje zgodbo od prvih jutranjih meglic do dramatičnih neviht in spokojnih prizorov narave, vključno z žerjavi, Planinskim poljem in Sečoveljskimi solinami. Ti motivi simbolizirajo njegovo vrnitev k morju in odprtost za nove izzive ob zaključku kariere.
Razstava, katero prirejajo v skupnem sodelovanju Kulturni dom v Gorici, Fundacija Univerze v Novi Gorici in kulturna zadruga Maja (v okviru projekta »Čedermaci današnjega časa«), s pokroviteljstvom Dežele Furlanije Julijske krajine, bo odprta vse do 21. marca 2025 po sledečem urniku : (od ponedeljka do petka) od 9.30 do 12.30 in od 15.30 do 18.00 ure, ter v večernih urah med raznimi kulturnimi prireditvami.