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DOI Artikel:Jackiewicz, Danuta: The art of photography: portrait, landscape and reportage in Polish 19th century photography
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18940#0059
7. Maurycy Pusch, Freta Street in Warsaw, 1890's
may learn how much importance was attached to photographic images in contemporary homes.
Pictures in ornamental frames were displayed on pieces of furnilure, on walls and in albums put
on view. They were important, and towards the end of the 19th century indispensable in the
life of each family.
Finally, we come to the most interesting and least known kind of photogra.phy — documen-
tary reports.22 Many portraits, especially those taken out-of-doors, have a documentary charac-
ter, and the same is true of many early town views capturing scenes of everyday life and moving
figures. However until Konrad BrandeFs iiwention in 1883 of a special camera for ,,short-exposu-
re photographs", the technical ąuality of such pictures Was far from perfect. Karol Beyer's two
photographs dating from 1855—59 — Trade in Birds in Piivna Street and Fair in the Old Town
Market Sąuare (Fig. 8) — are examples of the photographcr's attempts at photojournalism, and
of the technical limitations which made such attempts difficult at the time. The moving figures
in the two photos were retouched on the negative so as to render them elear. This indicates the
intention of the photographer who retouched other pictures in order to eliminate moving figures.
The earliest picture showing an important event in Warsaw Was taken by Karol Beyer on 5 June
1859; this was a procession with the relic of St. Victor the Martyr passing along Krakowskie
Przedmieście street. It was also Beyer who recorded successive stages in the construction of the
ICierbedź bridge in 1860—63: an example of a new way of perpetuating a seąuence of events in
a series of photos. In the history of Polish photography a special place is oceupied by five port-
22. Adam Sobota, Sztuka reportażu. Z liistorii fotograf ii polskiej, National Museum in Wrocław, Wrocław, 1980; Danuta Jac-
kiewicz, Fotografia w czasopismach warszawskich „Tygodnik Ilustrowany" i „Kłosy" w latach 1859—18113, MS.
48
may learn how much importance was attached to photographic images in contemporary homes.
Pictures in ornamental frames were displayed on pieces of furnilure, on walls and in albums put
on view. They were important, and towards the end of the 19th century indispensable in the
life of each family.
Finally, we come to the most interesting and least known kind of photogra.phy — documen-
tary reports.22 Many portraits, especially those taken out-of-doors, have a documentary charac-
ter, and the same is true of many early town views capturing scenes of everyday life and moving
figures. However until Konrad BrandeFs iiwention in 1883 of a special camera for ,,short-exposu-
re photographs", the technical ąuality of such pictures Was far from perfect. Karol Beyer's two
photographs dating from 1855—59 — Trade in Birds in Piivna Street and Fair in the Old Town
Market Sąuare (Fig. 8) — are examples of the photographcr's attempts at photojournalism, and
of the technical limitations which made such attempts difficult at the time. The moving figures
in the two photos were retouched on the negative so as to render them elear. This indicates the
intention of the photographer who retouched other pictures in order to eliminate moving figures.
The earliest picture showing an important event in Warsaw Was taken by Karol Beyer on 5 June
1859; this was a procession with the relic of St. Victor the Martyr passing along Krakowskie
Przedmieście street. It was also Beyer who recorded successive stages in the construction of the
ICierbedź bridge in 1860—63: an example of a new way of perpetuating a seąuence of events in
a series of photos. In the history of Polish photography a special place is oceupied by five port-
22. Adam Sobota, Sztuka reportażu. Z liistorii fotograf ii polskiej, National Museum in Wrocław, Wrocław, 1980; Danuta Jac-
kiewicz, Fotografia w czasopismach warszawskich „Tygodnik Ilustrowany" i „Kłosy" w latach 1859—18113, MS.
48