The Story of an Iconic Alpine Photograph Explained

The photo of Viktor Žagar climbing Jalovec was taken by Janez Gartner

Abstract

Viktor Žagar, a member of the Turistovski klub Skala climbing club, and his fellow climber Janez Gartner took a photograph while on the Horn route of Jalovec in 1939. By mistake, the authorship of the photograph was attributed to the legendary Slovene climber and mountain photographer, Stanko Tominšek. The photograph was believed to have been taken on the North Face of Triglav. Almost 80 years later, Zala Žagar, the granddaughter of Viktor Žagar, discovered that the information written on the reverse of this photograph was completely different. She began an attempt to verify facts that she had always considered accurate. She initiated an investigation that helped the author of the article and his colleagues confirm the assumption about the true author of the photo and the climber depicted in it. The article reveals how a mistake led to erroneous attribution of both authorship and the location where the photo was taken, at the same time presenting two members of the pre-war generation of Slovene climbers who had previously been unknown to the general public. On a side note, the article seeks to highlight how sometimes seemingly marginal factors can radically change a historical event or personality, causing significant damage from a historical standpoint.