“The World Through My Lens” in Motovun: Jurica Galić Juka brings an evening of travel photography, stories and documentary encounters
On Saturday, May 2, 2026, Motovun will host a travel-and-photography evening dedicated to the work of Jurica Galić Juka, one of Croatia’s best-known travel and reportage photographers. The program entitled “The World Through My Lens” will take place in the “Pet kula” Gallery, and is conceived in two parts: the travel lecture begins at 6 p.m., while the ceremonial opening of the photography exhibition of the same name is announced for 8 p.m. The event is organized by the Fotovun Photographers’ Association, in cooperation with the Municipality of Motovun and the Tourist Board of the Municipality of Motovun, and admission is free. For visitors planning to come to Motovun,
accommodation offers in Motovun may also be useful, especially because of the evening time of the program and the expected interest of lovers of photography, travel and documentary stories.
This is an event that combines the author’s field experience, travel narration and an exhibition overview of photographs created during twelve years of professional work. Juka is known for an approach in which photography is not only a visual record of a place, but also an attempt to understand the people, customs, history and communities he encounters. In his work, travel writing, documentary work, ethnology, anthropological curiosity and a journalistic sense for the moment often intertwine. That is why “The World Through My Lens” is not conceived merely as a series of attractive shots from distant locations, but as an evening in which photography is viewed as testimony about cultures, regions and lives that the globalized world often observes superficially or quickly forgets.
A lecture from Atacama to Pripyat
The travel lecture, announced for 6 p.m., brings an overview of the most interesting situations from more than a decade of the author’s professional work. According to the program announcement, through Juka’s experiences the audience will pass through a series of exceptional geographical and cultural points: from the Atacama Desert in Chile, known for its harsh landscape and extreme dryness, through the Rainbow Mountain in Peru, to the Son Doong cave in Vietnam, which in travel and speleological contexts is often cited as one of the most impressive cave locations in the world. The program also mentions Pripyat, the abandoned city connected with the Chernobyl disaster, and the Danakil Depression, one of the most unusual and climatically most demanding areas on the planet.
Such a selection of locations shows the breadth of the author’s interests: from natural phenomena and extreme landscapes to places marked by history, disasters, social change and human endurance. The lecture should, according to available announcements from earlier performances of the same program, also include encounters with authentic ethnic groups and research into traces of ancient civilizations. For Juka, such journeys are at the same time both a photographic challenge and a personal encounter with cultures that require patience, respect and an understanding of context. In that sense, his travel photography is far from tourist recording of landmarks: it tries to capture the relationship between people and space, customs and everyday life, tradition and the contemporary world.
The exhibition as a retrospective of twelve years of work
After the lecture, at 8 p.m., the ceremonial opening of the exhibition “The World Through My Lens” follows. The exhibition brings an overview of the author’s professional work from 2014 to 2026 through thirty photographs which, according to the organizers’ announcement, have marked his career, won awards and been published in Croatian and foreign publications. Such an exhibition format makes it possible to view Juka’s work in continuity, and not only through individual successes or virally recognized shots. The photographs created in different countries and circumstances are connected by a documentary sensibility, a pronounced interest in people and the ability to condense a broader story about place, time and community into a single scene.
The display brings together portraits, travel motifs, street scenes and journalistic moments. It is precisely this diversity that is important for understanding Juka’s authorial profile: he does not remain within one photographic discipline, but combines reportage dynamics, compositional precision and travel narration. In some works the emphasis is on the person and their expression, in others on a powerful landscape or the atmosphere of a place, and in still others on an unrepeatable moment that gains documentary value. Visitors coming from outside Motovun can connect the program with a shorter stay in Istria, with
accommodation near the “Pet kula” Gallery and the old-town core.
A photographer with more than 80 countries and international recognitions
Jurica Galić Juka is known to the public as a travel writer, reportage photographer and world traveler from Split. According to the event announcement, he has photographed in more than 80 countries of the world, while available public biographies and announcements of earlier programs state that he has visited more than 70 countries. His works have been published in Croatian and foreign media and publications, among which Meridijani, The Guardian and National Geographic are especially mentioned. Since 2016 he has been listed as a regular contributor to the magazine Meridijani, and his public work includes photography, travel lectures, reports, video stories and the popularization of travel through personal field notes.
In a photographic sense, Juka’s work is marked by a large number of recognitions. The announcement of the Motovun program mentions more than 300 international and national awards, while earlier public profiles and interviews highlighted hundreds of awards and numerous solo exhibitions. The “Tošo Dabac” Award for 2024, one of the most important recognitions in Croatian photography, awarded by Fotoklub Zagreb, stands out in particular. According to reports by HRT and other media, Galić Juka was among the recipients of that award together with Darija Nonveiller Šesto, and on the occasion of the recognition, exhibition programs were also presented at Fotoklub Zagreb. That award additionally confirmed his status as an author who has built a recognizable documentary expression from travel photography.
Documentary photography as an encounter with people and cultures
One of the most recognizable aspects of Juka’s work is his interest in communities and customs that are changing under the pressure of modernization, migrations, climate change and global cultural influences. In his photographs, people from distant or less-known regions often appear, but the author does not treat them as exotic scenes separated from reality. On the contrary, his approach seeks to emphasize the dignity, context and life complexity of the people he photographs. Such work requires time, communication and an understanding of local circumstances, because documentary photography can easily slide into superficiality if it relies only on visual attractiveness.
That is precisely why the lecture in Motovun may be important even beyond the framework of a classic cultural event. It opens the question of how travel photography is viewed today, especially at a time when images from distant places circulate daily on social networks, but often without explanation, verification or deeper understanding. Juka’s work reminds us that photography can be an entrance into a broader story: about the history of peoples, living conditions, changes in space, religious and family customs, but also about the role of the photographer who must know when to observe, when to approach and when not to disturb the moment. This is especially important in work with ethnic groups and communities whose identity is often presented stereotypically or simplistically.
Motovun’s “Pet kula” Gallery as a space for photography
The “Pet kula” Gallery is located in Motovun, at the address Resselov trg 1, in the building of the communal palace. According to data from the Fotovun Photographers’ Association, it is a contemporarily equipped gallery space of about 200 square meters, intended for the presentation of artworks, especially photography. In recent years, the gallery has been recognized as an important point of local cultural life, and through exhibitions, competitions and photography programs Fotovun systematically develops a space of encounter between authors, audiences and visual art. Motovun, with its old-town core and views of the Mirna valley, additionally provides an ambience that naturally connects with visual storytelling.
The organization of such a program in the “Pet kula” Gallery fits into Fotovun’s previous activity, an association that through exhibitions and competitions gathers authors of different generations and approaches. In that context, the guest appearance of Jurica Galić Juka also has an educational dimension: it offers the audience not only finished photographs on the wall, but also a conversation about the creation of those images, the conditions of field work, mistakes, unpredictable situations and experiences that remain outside the frame. For those planning to visit the event,
accommodation for visitors in Motovun can be a practical option, especially because the program takes place in the evening hours.
Free admission and an open invitation to the public
The Fotovun Photographers’ Association invites lovers of photography, travel and documentary stories to join the program on Saturday, May 2. Free admission further opens the event to a wider audience, not only to professional photographers and connoisseurs of visual arts. Such programs are especially important because they bring photography closer as a medium that can simultaneously be artistic, informative and socially relevant. In a time of rapid consumption of images, the exhibition and lecture format returns attention to the process of creating a photograph, to the author’s responsibility and to the stories of the people who stand before the lens.
“The World Through My Lens” in Motovun is thus announced as an evening in which travel is not viewed only as a change of place, but as an opportunity to understand different worlds. The lecture at 6 p.m. and the exhibition at 8 p.m. form a rounded whole: first the context of the creation of the photographs is opened, and then the audience gets the opportunity to encounter works that have marked twelve years of the author’s professional path. In the “Pet kula” Gallery, these scenes will be read both as the photographer’s personal diary and as a document of the time, spaces and people he encountered on journeys around the world.
Sources:- Fotovun Photographers’ Association – information about the “Pet kula” Gallery in Motovun, its location and gallery space- Fotovun Photographers’ Association – official announcements and the context of the association’s activities in the “Pet kula” Gallery- HRT – report on the recipients of the “Tošo Dabac” Award and exhibitions at Fotoklub Zagreb- Index – news about the “Tošo Dabac” Award for 2024 awarded to Jurica Galić Juka- Punkufer / Dnevnik.hr – announcement of the lecture “The World Through My Lens” and biographical information about the author- Trešnjevka Cultural Centre – description of the program “The World Through My Lens” and the locations covered by the lecture- Tourist Board of the Municipality of Motovun – official contact and local tourist information
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