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There is nothing easier than a job that combines love of one’s homeland, heritage, photography and the cravat. Nothing is easier than turning back one’s gaze and stepping into the lives of some unknown people from the past, although at first sight it seems that they do not have any connection with us today.
At the same time, there is nothing more difficult than wiping away with a wave of the hand, like in a fairy story, the old dust, that in some cases has been settling for centuries, from the yellowed silky albums and go back to the time when those (today’s) memories were carefully gathered, recorded with love, with a sense perhaps even then of the important role of “memory” and testimonies of one’s time. It is not easy to bring to life the vastly different, slightly mystical world of our great-grandparents, sift through the interior of their starched drawers, soaked in lavender and moth balls, their hand-carved corner cupboards or their old, many layered chests, purchased somewhere in foreign climes.
But, we wipe the dust off the old photographs, and underneath we find precious, filigree gold, preserved in embroidered kerchiefs and robes, in numerous wardrobes in Imota, Split, Zagreb, and throughout Croatia and the world. But, above all, in our hearts.
There somehow, the living realities, captured in these photographs, come alive again in our hearts and our spirit, strong as pictures carved in stone. These photographs tell the stories of the men and women of Imotski, families and relationships over the centuries; stories that can sometimes make us laugh, sometimes make us cry, whilst in our intimate self we sense all that may be read from them. What was the man thinking about, who, before he stood before the camera, smoothed his hair, straightened his tie, stood up straight, or his wife, who, just before she had her picture taken took her scarf from her head and wound it round her neck, combed her hair, smiled uncertainly, with glassy eyes?! That woman is our mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. If we look carefully at those faces, we can almost “hear” the stories which we listened to hundreds of times as children, by the fire in the stove, about people from the rocks where today’s generations are also growing.
Taking photographs was then to create a “memory book” for children and grandchildren, far off relatives in America, or perhaps from them for their cousins there in Imota. Without these old photographs and letters, we would never have discovered what Auntie Milica looked like, or Granny’s Uncle Iko, or Marijan, we would never have had a glimpse of their “American” lives, although it was precisely they that here turned the earth we inherited. And along with the earth, we also inherited photographs, letters, newspaper cuttings, family customs and stories, suits, scarves, ties…
Determined by time, the art of the photographer, the technical capacity of the cameras of that time, as well as the desire to record their figures on black and white parchment, thickened three-layered paper, our ancestors from Imotski posed, uncertainly or proudly (depending on their social status) in the photo studios of Olujić, Gjamonje, Aleksandrov, but also in improvised studios, at markets, in front of a dark sheet, on dusty paths, by dry walls, in front of stone houses, under tiled roves - all over that heavenly landscape! Apart from this, on these photographs, these people did not share the same gowns, or quality skirts, or tailor’s scissors, or full stomachs, or felt cardigans or silk scarves, nor opanke nor shoes. What they had in common was their cravats! And with them, very often embroidered handkerchiefs and pens. The cravat - dyed, ties, bow ties, straight ties, with a big or small knot. It was precisely these cravats that united all the visible and invisible differences and reigns supreme in these photographs.
All those people took the cravat as a symbol of their social status, personal dignity, or perhaps their future status - as a pledge or credit for the realization of their dreams. The cravat was and has remained a connection with the world, a passport for entry into new societies, cities, countries, continents (as shown by the photographs of many Imotski emigrants - “Americans”, guest workers, ladies’ men, intellectuals, artists), but also a form of trophy on returning home. It was, just as it is today, an adornment without which there is no celebration or mourning. Just like us today, the old people of Imotski showed their grooming, their taste, their self-respect, and also their respect for the person and occasion they were attending.
Several hundred people were involved directly or indirectly in this search for cravats on old photographs, in documents and memories, from the area of Imotska krajina. Of course, a multitude of untold stories, many interesting people, innumerable solemn occasions, sad farewells and joyful returns have not found their way into this book. Truly, however much we dig and dig, there will always be treasure that remains undiscovered.
We are witnesses every day of how our heritage and legacy is disappearing before our eyes, because it has not been recorded in time, or preserved. Perhaps this is because we take our everyday life for granted, it seems ordinary and unimportant. However, aware of the fact that the present was once called the future, and already tomorrow we will call it the past, we are bound to record at least some moments of the present and the past, to document them and leave them as memories for future generations.
The exhibition “A Knot in the Rock - the Cravats of Imota”, as the first in a series of monographs about cravats worn by Croats, came about on the basis of photographs of People of Imotski wearing cravats from the beginning of the 20th Century, held in July 2006, during the theatrical festival “Actors in Zagvozd”. Both are the fruit of the love and concern of all those who were involved in its birth, and those who entrusted their materials to us. A sincere thank you to all of you. I especially thank Suzana Budimir and Zdravko Olujić who collected most of the photographs and the other studio material.
This monograph would however not be possible without Marijan Bušić and Zlatko Penavić, who led me, inspired, into the magic world of the cravat and the national/global enterprise - Croatia - the Homeland of the Cravat.
This book is only one of the memories of the time, people and generations of the Imotska krajina, from the middle of the 19th to the middle of the 20th century. Just one more collection of pictures from the life of the Imotski bazaar, its villages and hamlets, sketches and tales of the people of Imotski, who, proud in their appearance, ornate in their dress and speech, strut through the decades and centuries, walk out of the old albums and wooden frames, to find their place in these pages.
These pages return them, in a sense, to life, just as they wove their daily lives, their life and customs into a little piece of tradition, which we live in today and which is our inheritance.
If you would like to add the monograph “A Knot in the Rock - the Cravats of Imota” to your book collection, click
