With the theme of August, we pay tribute to two significant anniversaries at the same time. With the two different types of cameras selected from our collection, we reflect on both World Photography Day and Hungarian Photography Day.
The first practical image recording process in photography was the daguerreotype associated with Louis Daguerre and Nicéphore Niépce. Their invention was registered with the French Academy on the 7th of January 1839, and was purchased by the French government shortly thereafter, making it available to everyone. On the 19th of August 1839, the presentation of the details of the chemical process at the meeting of the Academy of Sciences and Arts, aroused enormous international interest, after which the method of making a daguerreotype became known and accessible to everyone. This day represents the actual birth of photography, which has become World Photography Day.
A year later, Hungarian photography also carved its own path till nowadays. On August 29, 1840, at the meeting of the Hungarian Society of Scientists, the engineer and mathematician Vállas Antal presented the detailed process of daguerreotype, on which occasion he made in public the first daguerreotype photograph in Hungary. The film captures the Royal Palace of Buda and the Danube River below it. Officially, since 2003, this day is the day of Hungarian photography.
On the occasion of these significant anniversaries in August, we have chosen as the subject of the month three different types of cameras related to the factories in Dresden, but spread throughout our region.
The Weltaflex twin-lens camera was produced by Welta-Kamera-Werk, founded in 1914 near Dresden. The factory was nationalized after 1945, the device presented and made in the 50s being already a product of the state company.
The small Beiermatic camera was produced by Beier, also near Dresden, and was released around 1961-62 and, due to its size, was mainly aimed at tourists and travelers. The factory was founded in 1923 by Woldemar Beier, but after World War II, the entire factory was transferred to Ulyanovsk, Soviet Union. Years passed before production in Germany could be restarted, but already as a state-owned company.
The exhibited camera, type Kiev 4, was produced in the 1750s at the Arsenal factory in Kiev, founded in 1764. Despite its name, this type of camera is associated with the city of Dresden, being an exact copy of the Dresden Contax camera. After the Second World War, its production in the Soviet Union began with tools and machinery looted from the Contax factory in Dresden, using parts manufactured there, and not least with the specialists from there. The only difference is that instead of the old name Contax, the inscription on the device is Kiev "КИЕВ" (in Russian). The original Contax was very popular among professional photographers, being the favorite of photographer Robert Capa, many of his famous works were made with it.
The mid-century photo cameras can be viewed at the museum's ticket office from Tuesday to Sunday, daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
