Helena Vogelsang Novak (1962) graduated from the Faculty of Education at the University of Maribor, Department of History in 1984. Following her studies, she gained pedagogical experience by working with different target groups for several years. Since 1998, she has been employed at the Celje Museum of Recent History, where she works as senior museum educator. In 1999, she passed a professional examination for a museum worker at the Ministry of Culture (Directorate for Cultural Heritage). For many years now, she has been dedicated to reviving the only glass photo studio in Slovenia, which is a valuable example of our cultural heritage and the rich photographic legacy of the master photographer Josip Pelikan.

Josip Pelikan (1885–1977) was a photography master who devoted most of his creative life to Celje and its wider surroundings. Extremely extensive, almost unnoticeable is his work with portrait photography, rich in his technical and provincial themes. His place is among the pioneers of the mini-camera “Leica,” which created in the then “hard” photographs a real revolution. Pelikan received a good education at his father’s workshop, as he was in control of a complex college process. He was the master of retouching and knew the secrets of photographic paper, what a suitable motif was, and was a hub of photographic ideas. For Celje and its wider area, Pelikan represents a living document of a certain period. His camera recorded many an event in the touristic town and city vedutas which now belong to the past. He was hard-working and dedicated to his work, relaxed and witty, which an eye for detail can recognise in his photographs.

Borut Peterlin (1974) graduated from the FAMU Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (1998) and completed his postgraduate photography studies at the London College of Printing (2003). For many years he worked as a photojournalist and editor of photography at the weekly magazine Mladina. He was the initiator, organiser and program manager of the documentary photography festival Fotopub in Novo mesto, and has also collaborated with numerous international agencies. In recent years, he dedicated his time to reviving old photographic techniques from the 19th century, which he combines with his artistic practice. He lives and works in Straža pri Novem mestu. www.borutpeterlin.com