The Croatian Sports Museum took possession of a wealth of photographs of the retired and renowned sports photographer Radiša Mladenović. With the stroke of a pen, the Museum’s Collection of photographs expanded by over 50 000 photographs and negatives. The signing of the contract was attended by Radiša Mladenović himself, Danira Bilić, the Director of the Croatian Sports Museum, and Petra Husain Pustaj, curator and head of the Collection of photographs.

Radiša Mladenović (Uzovnica by Ljubovija, 1932) is a famed and respected, now retired, photographer whose long, bountiful and storied career started in the redaction of the daily newspaper Borba (trans. Battle) in 1948 and continued in Sportske Novosti (trans. Sports News) in 1954 and SN Revija (trans. Sports News Review) in 1976. Throughout his career, he followed and recorded the emergence and development of many clubs, the growth of numerous athletes, the daily life and even the venues, public and athletes outside of the context in which they are usually seen.

During his 70-year career, Radiša Mladenović won numerous awards for his exhibitions, with particularly notable being the exhibition of sports photography ahead of the 1960 Rome Olympic Games and the 1969 and 1972 exhibitions of Yugoslav sports photography. He received a life’s work award in 1987 and the capstone to his extraordinary career was his entry into the Croatian sports photography’s Hall of Fame in 2014.

Radiša Mladenović’s works portray a living world over a long period of time, documenting growth of Croatian sports. His works record joy, disappointment, grief, sacrifice and dedication, following the development of a generation of athletes, on the field and, often, off it. The artistic character of Mladenović’s works is proof positive of his talents and ability to record emotion in the snapshot of a single moment extracted from the flow of time and into history.

As one of the leading names of Croatia’s photo reporters, Radiša Mladenović followed many notable local and world sports events. His experience and photographic techniques allowed him to take photos which made rounds across the world and became indelibly associated with some athletes and moments in sports. It is no surprise, then, that he was named the leader of a new generation of sports photo reporters.

Radiša Mladenović’s works which entered into the Croatian Sports Museum’s collection, are exceptionally valuable and important for the history of sports. It has been made the main priority for digitization and processing to make it available to our partners and the public in as short a time as possible.