The Beginnings of Photography in Bucharest. Masters and Images from the 19th Century
Photography, a new practice that arrived from the West, dazzled Bucharest society in the 19th century. Those who were masters of the craft were called, right from the start, photographers. On February 16th 1839, the publication Albina Românească (The Romanian Bee) announced to the Romanian public the discovery of the daguerreotype by physicists Joseph Nicéphore NIÉPCE and Jacques-Mande Daguerre. The technique used obtained the image through a procedure today abandoned, imprinting the image on a silvered copper plate, sensitized with iodine and bromine vapors, with the help of a camera obscura. Concerns regarding photographic techniques began emerging in Romania around 1834, when working with bromine while conducting research related to photography cost a pharmacist his life. The Romanian Herald of March 19th 1843 announced the existence of the first photography workshop in Bucharest. The latter belonged to one Wilhelmine Priz, who was specialized in daguerreotypes, at a “very convenient price.” Daguerreotypes, very expensive and fragile, were of great finesse and fidelity. They could not be duplicated and could only be of a reduced format. The technique of the daguerreotype was practiced in our country until 1860, and the first such camera was purchased in 1840 by the Saint Sava College. It is believed that the one who handled this camera was Carol Popp de Szathmari himself. Carol Szathmari was one of the most famous and distinguished photographers of the time. He was the first great photographer of Romania, managing to capture the changes undergone by our country during the rule of three leaders. He was also the first one to render Bucharest on photo, a calotype, titled Procopoaiei Field. A photographer with a remarkable status, who was not among those who owned their own photography business, but who played an important role in capturing Bucharest with their cameras was Ludwig Angerer - not only one of the first photographers of Bucharest, but also one of Vienna’s greatest. As we have seen, the journey of photography, starting with the daguerreotype, continued with the calotype, then with the wet plate collodion process, moving on to the ambrotype and the ferrotype, also called the poor man’s daguerreotype. In 1873 the gelatin dry plate was introduced, marking the birth of modern photography. Generally, photographs varied as dimensions depending on the framing requirements and the photographer’s fancy. The photos were glued on cardboards marked with the name of the photographer’s workshop on the back side, sometimes also on the front, on the edge of the cardboard. The workshops that valued their status ordered their cardboards from Vienna, with their specially printed marking, of which many examples remain today. Later cardboards for sale appeared, bearing different decorative markings sucj as flowers and lovers with a camera, framing the word SOUVENIR. The photos were glued to the cardboards with the help of a special foil, heat pressed onto the surface. If, in general, master photographers used smaller formats, the specialized workshops and state-run laboratories worked with large formats. Franz Duschek was another renowned photographer who had his workshop on the New Street (today Edgar Quinet Street). He was Szathmari’s brother-in-law. In 1872 he announced that he was able to take pictures “during any weather, sunny or cloudy” and ensured “any demands of those visiting his workshop would be met.” Another famed photographer was Franz Mandy, who opened his workshop in 1877, on Victoria Avenue. He was the first photographer who introduced the concept of keeping a record of one’s photos, numbering his photographs starting with the number 1, and continuing throughout his workshop’s entire activity. The number of Bucharest photographers following in the steps of these great masters was not a small one. Among them, we mention A.D. Rieser, Eduard Pesky (who called himself “an academic painter” on the cardboard of his photos), Moritz Benedict Baer, W. Wollenteit, Iosif Szollosy, Ioan Spirescu, and J. Marie. Most photographers were not native Romanians, but rather of German, Austrian, French, Polish, or Czech origin, but, in time, native photographers became a more common sight. It is mostly towards the end of the century when we can encounter workshops of Romanian photographers, such as Ion Gavrilescu, Dumitru Constantinescu, I. Nicolescu, M. Davidescu. While their works may not number among those displayed in the exhibition, they are still worth mentioning. The exhibition displays photographs from the Bucharest Municipality Museum’s archives, many of which are being shown to the public for the first time.