Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. Az István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 20. 1980 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (1983)

Közlemények – Mitteilungen - Karlovits Károly – Beke László: The beginnings of Photography in Hungary. p. 249–267. t. LXXXIII–CIV.

At that time it was used by travelling photographers as a fast way of making photographs at fairs, resort places etc. The procedure itself however, was known much earlier, in 1853. Iodine solution with collodium was poured on an iron plate lacquered black, which then was made lightsensitive in a solution of silver nitrate. The picture was taken on this plate, which was developed in a ferrooxalt bath, dried and sometimes lacquered. (This technique was actually the forerunner of modern polaroid photography.) A very early example of such a picture is the portrait of the writer Majtényi Flóra (1837—1915) "with the cover design of the ladys' magazine 'Fashion Corner' in the Váci street photographic studio, Pest, September 27, 1859". (Simonyi Antal had a studio in Váci street at that time. It is possible that the picture was taken by him.) Pannotype, the making of positive pictures on black oilcloth is a collodium technique as well. The great advantage of this method is that it produces an extremely durable picture, easy to preserve. This way of making photographs began to spread in Hungary around the middle of the 1850's. A detailed description of this technique is given in the manual of Tömösváry mentioned previously. Some portraits photographed on glass in the 1850's and 1860's have survived, but it is difficult to say anything about their techniques without tests which would damage the protective cover of these pictures. The three photographs made on glass plate in this exhibition (the portrait of Baroness Dory and her daughter; Rübsan Moriz and Budahegyi Pauer Leó; Glosz Hugó) are underexposed positives with a black layer on their backs. (This procedure is sometimes called melanotype.) In the case of the photograph showing an American (?) boy — taken on a glass plate as well — however, the silver salt was carried by albumen (i. e. egg white) instead of collodium. Latern slides of the National Technical Museum made around 1860 are also collodium positives. The background of these pictures was covered by positive retouch. Bleaching of these pictures was probably achieved by the "alabaster" procedure mentioned in Tömösváry's book as well. Heller József a Pest photographer (earlier daguerreotypist) also made glass slides using the alabaster procedure at the beginning of the 1860's. Collodium positives were made brown in a bath containing gold salts, then colored by hand. Photoceramics, a process in which photographs are burnt on porcelain, glass or stoneware also began in the first years of the 1850's. The first successful experiment of this kind was associated with the name of the Frenchman Lafon de Camarsac (1855). The method was adopted in Hungary by Veress Ferenc. (The collodium positive was prepared in a bath of gold- and platinum chloride solutins. The collodium layer of the previously treated picture was attached to the partly fired porcelain surface. After the collodium film had dried the vessel was fired again.) The introduction of glass negatives led to the prospering of a special scientific field, microscopic photography. As shown by the previously mentioned study of Josef Berres, "Phototyp", the application of photography in microscopic research appeared simultaneously with the invention of daguerreotype, in 1840. This idea however, was not adequately acknowledged for at least a decade. Between 1853 and 1868 however, six different microphotographie books were published, all of them illustrated with original photographs. (Among these, B. Benecke's "Microphotographie" from 1868 contains twelve original pictures which were glued into it. These show various parts of plant preparations magnified 100 to 800 times natural size. The National Technical Museum has an equipment in its collection for making microphotographs from the 1870's which is similar to that used by Benecke when making the above mentioned pictures.) The favorite form of art of professional photographers of the 1850's and 1860's remained the portrait. Taking this kind of picture was secure work. In order to cater to the conservative taste of middle class customers, photographers often retouched the positives. These manipulations changed portraits to such an extent that some of them were not recognizable anymore. Colored (practically repainted) prints were framed and covered with glass, thus becoming even more similar to traditional paintings. There were only very few photographers who were able to present their models in a form free of such commonplaces. The manual of Tömösváry added to the simplification of studio work by providing practical instructions on how models should be posed for photographing: "The individual to be photographed is made to sit or stand aligned with the apparatus. In this way both of his or her sides are illuminated equally, because if it should happen that the right side was more surrounded by light than the left, the differences would influence the mother picture made by the beams of light in the following way : by the time the left side reached the optimum of illumination the right side would already have been too long exposed to the influence of light rays. As concerns the background, the lightest blue color, if available, is most desirable. It is important to take care and insure that it is evenly illuminated from all directions. The object or person to be photographed must be placed one step in front of the background and positioned in such a way that the extremities (arms and legs) are not put too much to the fore or to the rear. The head should be held at the usual height, and the gaze of the eyes should be directed towards the upper part of the equipment or even half a fathom higher. There are cases however, when taste sets such requirements that the rules listed above may not be appropriately followed. In these cases, the boundary of requirements must be modified according to need." The most popular form of portraiture was the so-called carte-de-visite (visiting card). Use of such photographs began to spread in Hungary in the last years of the 1850's and the fashion survived up to the end of the century. Middle class families kept the approximately 6x10 cm format portraits mounted on cardboard in fancy albums bound in leather, velvet or other precious material. Looking at these pictures was a form of entertainment in companies gathered in the salons decorated with Makart bouquets. At the same time, the backside of visiting cards offered photographers the perfect opportunity to advertise their studio and various services. The idea of cartes-de-visite was licenced by André Adolphe Disdéri, a Paris photographer in 1854. His chief motivation was the practical consideration that producing portraits might be made more cheaply if eight, small size pictures were taken on the same glass negative, side by side. (Later for the sake of simplicity all 6x10 cm size prints were called cartes-de-visite. The origin of the name is explained by the fact that the size of these pictures is the same as that of visiting cards. (Such photographs were actually used in place of visiting cards.) This new custom became very popular when Napoleon the third also had himself photographed in Disdéri's studio in 1859. (One of the special Disdéri cards has been found in a private collection in Budapest. This picture, a montage of many hundreds of smaller portraits shows Napoleon the third and his entire Court. This early photomontage was made around 1865. It had been considered the work of Adolphe Braun in the professional literature.) From this time on it became increasingly more frequent to popularize rulers, famous personalities, on cartes-de-visite. Later, curiosities and buildings also appeared on cartes-de-visite. The topic ranged from conversation pieces of trashy kitsch to works of art. In the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy the large scale production of cartes-de-visite was started by Ludwig Angerer (1827—1879) the Vienna Court photographer. Angerer was probably of Hungarian origin, born in the village of Malacka. Soon, every respectable photographer followed his initiative. For this reason, the number of cartes-de-visite which have survived in Hungary may amount to several hundreds of thousands. Here, only the work of some of the most outstanding photographers is presented in connection with the mass production of cartes-de-visite which resulted in a flood of such photographs in Hungary in the 1850's and 1860's. At that time, some of the daguerreotypists, who soon turned to the wet plate process, were still active (for example, Mayer, Strelisky and Kawalky). Among these the of Strelisky Lipót has not yet been clarified, because the Strelisky studio operated up to the turn of the century. It was run however, by a number of family members and successors. It is certain that Lipót was working in the studio during the 1860's; Sándor began his activities at the same time while a signature "N. Strelisky" is also known. (Three 254