His research journeys took him through numerous towns and villages, where, in addition to material culture, he carefully recorded people, environments, and scenes of everyday life. In this way, a unique ethnographic picture was created of a region that, at the time of his research, was undergoing rapid social and cultural change.
A special place in Crnilović’s work was devoted to the study of traditional costume. He approached dress through its transformations, functions, and symbolic meanings, always in close relation to the social and cultural context in which it was created and worn.
Photographs taken on negative film and glass plates, now preserved in the collection of the Ethnographic Museum, represent a valuable documentary and aesthetic whole. They bear witness to clothing culture, the architecture of towns and villages, and the sacral and secular art of the central Balkan region from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
On the occasion of the 140th anniversary of his birth, the exhibition presents a selection from this rich photographic collection and the results of Hristifor Crnilović’s work, as a lasting testimony to the time, people, and culture to which he dedicated his life.
