In late 2024, I began creating my own content management tool named Arhivio. The goal was to develop a system similar to Photoshelter, which I’ve been using for Fotografije Zagreba since 2018 and for Croatia Captured since September 2023, to store images. Arhivio is still in its early stages, but there are some versions available for review. For instance, all 12,000+ photos from the Croatia Captured project have been incorporated into Arhivio Croatia Captured. However, as Fotografije Zagreba’s archive contains over 100,000 images, there is more work to be done. When the photo count exceeds 10,000, the search function (keyword entry) becomes somewhat slow, so I’m in a process of searching for a solution. Furthermore, Photoshelter offers numerous features that surpass my current development skills and experience, so the intention is not to replace Photoshelter, but rather to explore what I can create for my photo collections.
This is how it looks like when you’re browsing photos:
You can also have your own list of keywords (locations, topics, whatever you want) to make searching more user friendly
In the Spring of 2025, I utilized AI tools to create Python scripts that automate the construction of new Arhivio subjects, leading to the establishment of Arhivio for multiple projects under Fotografije Zagreba.
The first one was for the largest project within Fotografije Zagreba – Mapping of Zagreb. The idea behind that project is to take photos of every street, square, and park in Zagreb. The project currently has more than 10,000 photos, and you can read more about it here. There’s also a link to the Arhivio Mapping of Zagreb there, so check it out.
There are also three more minor ongoing projects that have their own Arhivio search engine, and they are Buildings of Zagreb, See Zagreb and Zagreb from Above.
Currently, I’m using Arhivio only for learning and development, but I hope that by the end of 2025, I’ll achieve a couple of goals I have for it, which are mostly based on useful tools that would be built within the Arhivio content management tool.
