History on the Walls of Kuca Fotografa

Photographs are a full expression of feelings, ideas and observations. They store memories and tell stories. This is one of the reasons why Kuca Fotografa, a charming cottage in the old town of Novigrad, Dalmatia – Croatia, caught our attention.

Once the home and studio of wartime photographer Nikica Karavida, it has been given a new lease of life by a local artist/designer, who decided to tell the story of the cottage and its previous owner in it’s stone walls.

All of the photographs are original file negatives and prints done by the photographer in this particular house. After the First World War Nikica had lost his limb, and it was during his rehabilitation that his photographic career started.

The photos on display are a small selection of his voluminous body of work, which documents life of people in Novigrad and also hides evidence of his own life and family. Some photographs in the house feature his auto portraits and images of his closest ones. He documented every special event that happened in Novigrad just as well as everyday life. From hydroplane landing or funerals and big celebrations, to the exploration of the human states and conditions throughout simple individual portraits or group photos. We find very interesting that every photograph taken by him had to feature a person in it. Even in his landscape shots, there was always someone camouflaged within the trees or blended into walls.

His photographic career ended during the Second World War when Italian fascists confiscated his photographic equipment, and he never took a shot after that.