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.

THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN HUNGARY* This exhibition opens on an anniversary: 140 years ago, on the 19

th August 1839, Arago presented Daguerre's photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences. In honor of this occasion we will attempt to present the first decades in the history of photography in Hungary. Aside from the desire to celebrate the anniversary certain domestic circumstances also confirm the need for our enterprise. Although it has become almost fashionable to emphasize the importance of research into the history of photography in recent years, Hungary is not fully advanced in this area. Fifty years after the French Academy of Sciences bought the licence for daguerreotypes from the inventor and made it available world wide, the Hungarian scientific monthly, Természettudományi Közlöny published a jubilee issue (April, 1889). By this time however, the beginnings of Hungarian photography had been forgotten to such an extent, that the journal had to turn with the following questions to its readers: "Who was the first to deal practically with daguerreotypes in Hungary? Who established the first studio in Budapest? Who made the wellknown daguerreotype of Petőfi Sándor?". Although many details have been recovered by researchers since that time, the basic questions still have not been satisfactorily answered. This does not even cover the fact that the most outstanding and sometimes world famous of the last century Hungarian photographers are little known by the public at large. Unfortunately, although a number of institutions collect old photographs in Hungary, each works from its own special viewpoint. The history of photography in Hungary therefore, has not yet become a uniform and well organized discipline. Photography is not simply an art. (Particularly in the last century, it is difficult to distinguish between "good" and "artistic" photographs.) At the same time a photograph may be a document of local, national, educational or technical history, as well as a scientific device, work of art, or a simple item of consumption, a form of entertainment. In addition, any combination of these properties may be found within any of the various photographs. The history of photography is an even wider field. It includes equally the traditions and customs associated with photographs, as well as the industrial, scientific and technical background which actually gave it rise. This is why it may be consid* In this volume, we present the accompanying text and catalogue of the exhibition organized in the Csók István Gallery, Székesfehérvár (August 18 — October 10.1979). The material was compiled byKárolyKarlov i t s and László Веке, with the cooperation of Mária Albecker ; the joint organizer of the exhibition was Márta К. Kovalovszky. For the sake of authenticity the names of Hungarian have been left in the traditional order of family name first and given name second. ered lucky that this exhibition has been organized in a "neutral territory", a country museum which is not influenced by particular principles of collection like some of the institutes specialized in photography. On the other hand, emphasis was laid on technical history and multiplication techniques in this exhibition. Naturally, one cannot expect complete coverage of the beginnings of the history of photography in Hungary in this exhibition. It would take years of further work to acquire a complete collection of material and data. Various reasons also prevented us from borrowing some of the most famous instruments and critical photographs. Reproductions were substituted for some of the latter. (At the same time however, numerous original photographs previously unknown to the public are presented here.) Some explanation is needed concerning the place of origin and dating of exhibition items : quite a few foreign photographs and objects were presented because of their connections with Hungary, or in order to illustrate techniques known here but for which Hungarian material was not available. (Nota bene: 19

th century photography was of an international character in Hungary as well as a technical medium or form of reproduction. This tendency was particularly strong in the period of the AustroHungarian Monarchy.) As far as the chronological boundaries of the exhibition are concerned it was considered important to outline the forerunners of photography as well. On the other hand, in order to demonstrate technical interrelationships, the original periodization (1840—1860) has been modified, and in some cases concerned the middle of the 1860's as well. Because of this last we must deal again with the turn of the 1850's and 1860's. This will provide an opportunity to present the work of masters (like Veress Ferenc from Kolozsvár or Divald Károly in Eperjes), who began to work at the time, but reached the peak of their carreers only late** Hopefully this effort will succeed. The antecedents of Hungarian photography Photography is not a Hungarian invention. The domestic history of photography however, may be well characterized by the ways this achievement of the universal history of civilization was utilized and improved upon in Hungary. The name of the Frenchman Daguerre and the date 1839 means much more than the unique individual record of an outstanding personality. It also marks the end of a many centuries long development and the beginning of a new process along the same evolutionary lines. As the exhibition's material shows, Hungary strove to keep pace with this process. Permanently fixed pictures created by optical and chemical methodologies, the first photographs in a modern sense, were 249