Examples of Historic Photographs
sent by the 2008 Photograph Institute students
from Estonia, Bulgaria, and Slovakia

ESTONIA

“This is a silver gelatin photograph (an enlargement from the glassplate negative) from the beginning of the 20th century by Viljandi county photographer A. Järvekülg. Before moving into a new school building, a photograph was taken of the old building. This is a typical village school in Estonia with one classroom and a bedroom for the pupils, as well as living rooms for the teacher.

During the war and Soviet occupation of Estonia, it was very dangerous to hide objects, and people even kept secret their occupations, relatives, and education.  All Estonian high military servicemen were killed in 1941, as well as members of Parliament and officials in ministries. Educated people as teachers and doctors were killed or deported to Siberia, and all properties and farmlands were taken away by Soviets. They even deported children and old people during those years. Yet people hid their dearest or secret things like flags, maps, documents, and old photos under the roof or floor of their house, and sometimes in barns or cellars. All these objects suffered from the extensive mold, dust, and mechanical damage, and for several years we have treated such items in our Center. We are amazed at how many things are turning up, and how brave people have been to hide things and to keep their secrets. Simple people, often schoolboys and girls, even hid church bells, fragments of our national monuments, our first Estonian flag, and very important but dangerous documents and photographs. 

The owner of this photo is a granddaughter of the teacher of this village school. Her family paid for the conservation treatment, a new digital print was presented to the school.  One student researched the photographer, who was a very interesting man. He was a local farmer with many interests, including being a pilot and an owner of a photo studio in Viljandi. He was also arrested and ruined after the war, and he died unknown and in poverty.

Here is the photograph after conservation treatment and digital retouching. At the Conservation Center Kanut we never retouch the original photo. But sometimes, in the case of a photograph that has large areas of loss or other damage, we retouch digitally after conservation in order to print a new copy.  I made this digital retouching in spring 2008.”

                                                                                    - Vilja Sillamaa

BULGARIA

“While conducting research about the history of Bulgarian photography for a presentation at the International Photograph Conservation Workshop in Bratislava, I had the chance to talk to one of the most famous Bulgarian photographers, Ivo Hadjimishev. When I explained my interests, he gave me a scanned image of a very rare autochrome made in 1913 by his grandfather to use in the presentation. This is the earliest color photograph in Bulgaria I’ve ever found, and one of the very few of this process that I have seen.
 
Of course it is not only the date that makes it interesting. This is a self portrait of Ivo Hadjimishev’s grandfather with his wife. The grandfather was a successful factory owner, but managed to find time for photography also. It is surprising to see how dedicated he was, keeping in mind that this photographic process is very difficult. The very composition is interesting because of the position of the figures and the two flags on the left. The red-green-and-white one is Bulgarian, the green-white-and-red one is Hungarian, but I’m not sure about the other one.

The couple has just been married and they are on their honeymoon in Lausanne, Switzerland. The atmosphere is obviously quite luxurious when you consider that the photograph was taken during the time of the Balkan war, when all the Balkan countries were involved in a bitter fight. Actually three wars continued end to end without break from 1912 until after the First World War in 1918. It was a tragic period for Bulgaria, with many victims and lost territories.“

                                                                                        - Stefan Belishki

“This is a photograph by Earl Hilar Csáky of his children Anna and Gustav. It is an albumen print made in Austria in 1889 in the photograph studio, WINTER, in Wien, Austria. The photograph is owned by the State Regional Archive in Levoca, Eastern Slovakia.”

                                                                                                                       - Jakub Gulyás