Caves - Peter Gedei Cave Photography

Križna jama is considered the most beautiful Slovenian water cave and is known worldwide for its unique features. The cave is best known for its numerous underground lakes of emerald green color, separated by calcite barriers, and its rich underground animal life. It is also known for the remains of a cave bear, which can still be seen today in a side passage at the entrance of the cave. It is the only naturally preserved show cave in Slovenia, so there is no electric lighting or concrete paths inside.

The photography project of the Križna jama has been ongoing since 2017. In the span of a year, enough photographic material had been gathered for a story, which was proposed to the editorial team of the Slovenian edition of National Geographic. It was further enhanced with photographs from the cave Nova Križna jama, a visually appealing plan was created, and an opinion on the quality of underground water was added. The story was published in the September 2018 issue and also received the Best Edit award for the best story, awarded by the American editorial team. Later, it was also included in their “evergreen” selection of stories, where only the best and most interesting ones are gathered. These are freely accessible to all local editions of National Geographic, which can also publish them at any time.

I stumbled upon the publication in other local editions completely by accident. While browsing the internet, I noticed a story about the Križna jama in the Dutch edition in August 2020 and obtained it in electronic form with the help of the Slovenian editorial team. Since I assumed it probably wasn’t the only one, I inquired further and found out that the story was also published in the German and Romanian editions. I anticipated that the story would be published elsewhere in the future and arranged with the American editorial team to inform me about the publications as they occur, although they do not do this and have no control over it. In the end, I could only rely on my own resourcefulness and the help of the Slovenian editorial team.

Based on the information I have, the story was published in thirteen local editions (including the Slovenian one), and in six of them, it was used as a cover story. It regularly appeared in magazines from 2020 to October 2021, with the last appearance in the May 2023 issue of the Taiwanese edition. Many editorial teams were so kind as to send me a printed copy of the magazine along with the PDF file.

NG Slovenia 2018-09 + cover
NG Germany 2020-08
NG Netherlands 2020-08
NG Romania 2020-08 + cover
NG Czech 2020-11 + cover
NG Thai 2020-12 + cover
NG Poland 2021-01 + cover
NG Bulgaria 2021-02
NG Japan 2021-06
NG France 2021-06
NG South Korea 2021-06
NG Russia 2021-10 + cover
NG Taiwan 2023-05