Exhibition: ‘Through the Eyepiece’ at the SASA Gallery of Science and Technology
The exhibition titled ‘Through the Eyepiece’, authored by Professor Nela Puškaš, from Professor Dr Aleksandar Đ. Kostić Institute for Histology and Embryology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Belgrade. opens on Thursday, 8 May, at 6 p.m. at the SASA Gallery of Science and Technology.
The exhibition ‘Through the Eyepiece’ marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of ‘Microphotographic Atlas of Normal Histology.’ The author of the Atlas, Aleksandar Đ. Kostić was the first professor of histology and embryology at the Belgrade School of Medicine and a pioneer in medical photography and film in Serbia. At the beginning of the 20th century, when drawings were the fundamental means of showcasing histological solutions and photography had just begun to find its place in medicine, Kostić’s Atlas, featuring more than 150 original photographs of tissues and organs, represented a remarkable scientific and technical achievement — one that remains significant to this day.
Professor Kostić’s photographic legacy was discovered only several years ago. It was subsequently digitised by the SASA Audiovisual Archives and Centre for Digitisation and first presented to the public in the 2022 exhibition Secrets of the Forgotten Archives at the SASA Gallery of Science and Technology and the Rančićeva kuća Gallery in Grocka. This was followed by Sketches from the Life of the Kostić Family in 2023, also held in Grocka. The current exhibition is the third in this series, continuing the promotion of Kostić’s extensive photographic archive and the work of the Department of Photography, which he founded in 1924.
In addition to the 1925 edition of the Microphotographic Atlas of Normal Histology, the exhibition features exam albums with microphotographs, original histological preparations from the time of Kostić’s work, a microscope and associated equipment used in histological procedures, as well as preserved slides still housed at the Institute today.
This exhibition is simultaneously an opportunity to present a rich legacy and showcase more than a century-long tradition of the Faculty of Medicine and the University of Belgrade – two institutions of national importance, which have evolved together and successfully risen to the challenges, overcoming tribulations throughout their existence, from the foundation to modern days.