Dr. Kubassek János: Cholnoky Jenő természetábrázoló művészete (Érd, 2002)

Judit Berta Varga: Jenő Cholnoky as Photographer - He conscious use of the camera

£ B ver and chlorine-silver-gelatine dry-plate produced in advance spared the photographers from the difficulties of the darkroom and the troublesome process of developing, either. The professional photographer's co-operation essential in the middle of the century also became unnecessary. But against the process specialized for plane film, it was a backward technology. One of Cholnokf s so-called 'kroki' (sketch) notebooks used for making notes (lOx 15.5cm, thin, leather-bound, squared notebook) tells us about the content of his Chinese luggage. According to them, beside the absolutely necessary clothing, engineering equipment, the compulsory dictionaries and the already mentioned camera, he also took an easel for the pictures, two photographic washing-bowls, a measuring bottle, and solvents with him. The later make it unambiguous that he wanted to develop his photographs on his own. This process promised more or less success because of the gelatine melting down easily from the sheet of glass in warm and humid weather. He reached maturity in photography through the frequent performing of this activity. He could save only half of the captured moments. The ca 130 negatives protected in the Photography Department, and the contemporary positives made from them and is available in the collection of the Hungarian National Museum, are also important sources of the scientist's life-work. Beside his Chinese companions and hosts, he also recorded among others the phases of rice growing along the Great Canal, the gate-system of the Jangtse, and the estuary's unique phenomenon, the 4 m high tidal wave front covered in white foam, which was formed by the elevation of the river-bed and the narrowing of the riversides. On his following journey abroad lasting scarcely a month, the cities and most magniûcient landscapes of Russia and Finland happened to be recorded in fewer photos, but in a much more perfect execution. The most wonderful pictures of the KievMoscow-St. Petersburg-Helsinki route were taken along the Vuoksi River. These were already the works of an experienced photographer, which could be proudly shown in the columns of the Vasárnapi Újság, the most popular national magazine. In the spring of 1907, on a field-trip in Lóczy'

s company again, pictures were taken for the profession itself. The smoking, croaking and desolate volcanoes, the ash cones and stones ejected by the Stromboli and the Vesuvius turned out to be less demanded photographic themes in the circles of the educated audience grown up on the idyllic representation of nature. From the scientist's photographic activity while staying in