Krzysztofory 37

Information about the author: historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Head of the Kraków Photography Department of the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7421-7358

Abstract: Daguerreotypy is one of the oldest techniques of obtaining photographic images. It was invented by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), a theatre scenery painter, the creator and director of the Paris-based Diorama entertainment establishment. The French parliament purchased from him the rights to the technology, and then presented them to the world without patent claims. The daguerreotype technique was popularized throughout Europe by itinerant photographers, with a substantial number of keen enthusiasts. Daguerre’s invention quickly reached Polish land as well, alas, very few daguerreotypes survive to this day. 1989 saw the publication of Wanda Mossakowska’s book Dagerotypy w zbiorach polskich. Katalog [Daguerreotypes in Polish collections. A catalogue]. The authoress made an attempt to determine the number of daguerreotypes surviving in our country. In order to complete her goal, she explored all public and private collections nationwide. The results of her research are contained in a calogue comprising 442 entries. The list includes three daguerreotypes which at that time were in the possession of our Museum. The Museum of Kraków has recently acquired seven more items, five of which remained unknown to Mossakowska. The present paper is dedicated to these five new, heretofore unknown daguerreotypes.

In the first half of the 1990s the Museum purchased a number of family heirlooms and assorted objects which had belonged to three distantly related families: the Płonczyńskis, the Schugts, and the Wojciechowskis. Among those new acquisitions were three daguerreotypes produced by unknown daguerreotypists. Two of these images represent the Płonczyński brothers: Aleksander (1820–1858), a painter and a pedagogue, and Wiktor (1814–1883), a court clerk, with his family. The third daguerreotype shows Wiktor Płonczyński’s brother in law Henryk Schugt (1815–1873), a court writer.

The last two daguerreotypes were purchased by the Museum in 2014 from the descendants of Włodzimierz Tetmajer, but are in fact associated with his stepbrother – poet Kazimierz Tetmajer. The images represent Izabela Grabowska, née Jasińska, and Jan Andrzej Grabowski, the parents of Julia, the poet’s mother who married widower Adolf Tetmajer in 1864. Jan Andrzej Grabowski (1808–1880) was a Warsaw merchant and his potrait was produced by an unknown daguerreotypist. The daguerreotype representing his wife Izabela Grabowska, née Jasińska was produced by a famous Warsaw daguerreotypist, and later photographer Karol Beyer. Despite its modest size, the daguerreotypes collection at the Museum of Kraków is extremely valuable.

Keywords: daguerreotype, Kraków, Museum of Kraków, Aleksander Płonczyński, Wiktor Płonczyński, Henryk Schugt, Jan Andrzej Grabowski, Adolf Tetmajer

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.01

Information about the author: PhD, art historian, Institute of Art History of the Jagiellonian University, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1014-9429

Abstract: The photo library of Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Art History is one of the oldest photographic archives in Poland, and its holdings, collected for over 130 years, are closely connected with the development and scope of research of Kraków’s art history department. This also pertains to the over 900 photo prints produced by the well-known studio of Ignacy Krieger that operated in Kraków in the years 1860–1926. The images show historical buildings and works of art, mostly located in Kraków, but also in about a dozen other towns (i.a. Gołuchów, Nowy Wiśnicz, Baranów Sandomierski, and Biecz). The aim of the paper is primarily to present a general characterization of this group of photographs in terms of their physical features, themes, dating, and provenance. It contains a detailed description of the original hallmarks used on the photo prints, such as catalogue marks, or signatures with reference numbers printed from negatives, corresponding with the extant lists of views offered by Krieger’s atelier. Strong emphasis has also been put on the origin of the discussed photographs, since the markings which can be seen on the photo prints (stamps, annotations), as well as written sources (old inventories and account books) sometimes enable the researcher to determine the precise details pertaining to the purchase of the specific prints, which, in turn, makes it possible to determine the terminus ante quem of the creation of the negatives. Over a quarter of the group were purchased at the end of the 19th century by Prof. Marian Sokołowski for what was then called the Office of Art History of Jagiellonian University, usually direcly from the photographer; other items were donated by private persons or institutions, including in particular the Commission on Art History of the Polish Academy of Learning, and the Group of Conservators of Western Galicia.

The analysis of the discussed group of prints enables the author to draw several research perspectives which have been presented in the second part of the paper. On the basis of three examples (well documented in source materials), namely the photographs of the Late Gothic polyptych representing St John the Almsgiver from the Augustinian church in Kraków; the reproduction of a painting from an ancient vase from the Gołuchów collection; and a photograph of an 18th-century street plan of Rzeszów – the author has demonstrated the close relations between the activity of Kriegers’ studio and the academic research conducted by Kraków art historians, especially Marian Sokołowski.

Keywords: photography, history of photography, Kraków, Ignacy Krieger, Photo Library, Institute of Art History, Jagiellonian University, Marian Sokołowski

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.02

Information about the author: art historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Head of the Hipolit House, a branch of the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5755-7641

Abstract: In 1967 the Library of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków donated to the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków a collection of glass photographic plates from the former photographic workshop of the Museum of Industrial Art, i.e. from the Municipal Museum of Industry which had ceased to exist in 1950. The collection that was taken over by the Historical Museum comprises 1790 items, including glass plates covered with gelatine bromide emulsion, cut sheet films, and colour separation sheets for printed reproduction. Along with the plates, the donated collection also included storage cards with reference numbers and brief descriptions of the plates, which made them easier to identify.

The Museum of Science and Industry in Kraków was established in 1868 on the initiative of Adrian Baraniecki (1828–1891), a physician and social activist who had spent several years (1864–1868) in England. Having become acquainted with the collections and research of South Kensington Museum, he collected about five thousand exhibits which he subsequently donated to the City of Kraków in 1868. The collection consisted mostly of samples of materials, machine models, and tools. It grew rapidly thanks to the public campaign launched to collect donations from Polish society. The museum also had a permanent acquisitions fund, and from the establishment of the model museum workshops onward the collection was gradually enriched by the products manufactured by those worshops, as well as post-competition items. The surviving negatives offer us glimpses of the Musem itself, as well as its collections, extensive research and activity. They constitute documentation of the range of vocational and training courses run by that institution, its workshops and services, as well as the promotion of its exhibitions and publications. Events which were organized by the Museum itself, but beyond museum facilities as such are also well documented and presented in an interesting way. Such an approach represents a rather modern way of thinking about the promotion and marketing of an institution, including an element of conscious brand building of the Museum.

The collection is traditionally associated with the name of Stanisław Kolowca (1904–1968) who ran the photographic workshop at the Museum of Industry for 14 years (from 1925 to 1938). Kolowca left behind visual documentation of exhibitions, objects, places and people, yet his photographs possess an unquestionable artistic quality as well. The artistry is the result of his choice of perspective, the way he builds the inner space within the frame, and the way he handles light. Formal perfection combined with the artist’s skillful perspective on the subject create the impression that we perceive it as remarkably realistic. Stanisław Kolowca’s photographs set a standard of excellence for anyone who documents, inventories, and digitalizes works of art.

Keywords: Museum of Science and Industry, Adrian Baraniecki, Stanisław Kolowca, photography, document, the Kraków Workshops, vocational courses, exhibitions, 12 Rajska Street

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.03

Information about the author: PhD, art historian, adjunct in Institute of Art History at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5915-45

Abstract: The photo archive at the Art History Department is a unique collection. It constituted a visual, didactic body of work since the moment of foundation of the first academic art history in Poznań at the German royal Academy (1903–1918), then the art history seminar at the Polish Poznań University (1919–1939), the art history department at the German Reich University (1940–1945) and finally the Polish Institute at Adam Mickiewicz University after World War II. The oldest photographic set is a collection that remains unordered. It consist of graphics and photos (about 3,800 items) and glass slides (about 6,000 items). The origins of these materials range from 1903 (when the German royal Academy was founded) until 1975 (when the slides collection in today’s Institute was founded).

Each of these institutions created their own collection for teaching art history, while also adopting and assimilating the collections of their predecessors. As a result, today’s collection reveals the complicated story of Poznań’s art. history. In this paper, I aim to characterise the history of the photo archive and indicate the main research problems that this collection presents, such as: the history and state of the photographic collection, selections of photographs for education by Polish and German art historians; reproductions of local art from the Greater Poland region used in teaching, the attitude of Polish and German art historians to the art of the region, and finally the issue of politics and propaganda in the construction of an archive intended for teaching.

Keywords: photographic archives at universities, photo libraries, the Institute of Art History Photo Archive at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, art history in Poznań

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.04

Information about the author: historian and Judaic scholar, custodian at the Cultural Contexts Documentation Department of the Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum in Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9999-4951

Abstract: Photographs presenting Jewish subjects constitute the largest collection of Judaica within the archive of the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków. Among the oldest, and the most priceless of them, are those from the album of Prof. Izydor Kopernicki (1825–1891) titled Types et Costumes de la Pologne. The set contains 104 photographs from the period spanning from the 1860s until the 1880s representing the Jewish population, mostly that of Kraków, Lwów, and Warsaw, but also the odd examples from a numer of smaller towns of the former Eastern Galicia. Over a half of all the photographs portraying Jewish types were produced by two Kraków-based photographers of Jewish descent: Szymon Balicer (ca. 1824–1885), and Ignacy Krieger (1817–1889). Eleven photographs from the 1870s and the 1880s were produced by Michał Greim (1828–1911); in these images the author immortalized the figures of the Jews of Podolia.
Photographs by Władysław Postawka (1883–1932) dating from the beginning of the 20th century show the Jewish inhabitants of the author’s family estates in the Świętokrzyskie region.
The photographs from the times of WWI were produced as part of the documentary works of the Tourist Commission which had been established in 1916 in German-occupied Warsaw. The territorial scope of the places and figures immortalized in these photographs, many of which represent Jewish people, is primarily the area of Congress Poland: Warsaw, Łódź, Łęczyca, Kutno, Łuków, Sandomierz, Biała Podlaska and others, the only exception being the photographs taken in Kazimierz – the Jewish quarter of Kraków.
Two larger groups of photographs date from the interwar period (early 1930s). The first set contains materials from the Światowid Photographic Agency: photographs by Wilhelm Ze’ev Aleksandrowicz, showing views from Kraków’s Kazimierz district, as well as the wedding of the daughter of the second Bobover Rebbe, Ben Zion Halberstam. The second set contains a series of outdoor portrait photographs by an unknown author, depicting the Jews of Myślenice.
A group of dramatic photographs from the Holocaust period, depicting the inhabitants of one of the smaller ghettoes in the General Government (1940–1942) also survive at the Ethnographic Museum.
Moreover, the Museum’s archive has preserved an assortment of individual photographs presenting a variety of Jewish subjects, such as cemeteries and synagogues, most of which no longer exist .

Keywords: the Ethnographic Museum in Kraków, photography, Jews, Judaica, human types, ethnography, anthropology, the war, the Holocaust

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.05

Information about the author: PhD, historian, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Celestat, a branch of the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3214-0003

Abstract: The photo album of the members of Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity from the second half of the 19th century (inv. no. MHK-240/BrK/1-58) is certainly one of the most interesting musealia in the collection of the Kraków Fowler Brotherhood. It is a valuable source of information on the history of the Confraternity in the 19th century, its internal organization and structure, as well as history of photography and photographic studios in Kraków, Vienna, Pest, Lwów, and Paris.

The group of photographs contains the images of 57 representatives of Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity who were actively engaged in the organization’s activity from the 1830s until the 1870s. The format of the photographs is that of carte de visite which was very popular at the time, and had been introduced by a Paris photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri. The album even features a photograph produced by Disdéri himself – the portrait of Wincenty Wolff, banker, senator, member of the National Government in 1848, chairman of the Kraków Merchants’ Congregation, deputy-chairman of the Charity Society, member of the Archbrotherhood of Mercy and the Bank of Piety, as well as president of Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity of many years’ standing. Wolff was one of the most energetic members of the Confraternity, however, the album also contains the photographs of his less influential shooting comrades who did not hold any top positions in the organization. Among such moderate members we will find e.g. Jan Kanty Knowiakowski, the owner of a confectioner’s shop, Michał Borowski, an office worker, and Henryk Czerny, the owner of a coal yard. All three had their photographs taken by the outstanding Kraków photographer Ignacy Krieger in his studio at the corner of 42 Main Market Square and 37 St John’s Street. Among other proprietors of Kraków photo ateliers represented here we should mention: Walery Rzewuski who is the author of 30 portraits in the album; Szymon Balicer and Awit Szubert (each of them contributing three photographs); as well as Adolf Hübner and Ignacy Mażek (each being the author of two images). Foreign photographers whose works can be found in the discussed group are represented by: György Klösz of Pest, Teodor Szajnok and J. Stahl of Lwów, Emil Rabending, Karol Jagemann and the Kundegraber & Lichtenstern atelier from Vienna, as well as the aforementioned André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri from Paris.

The photographs gathered in the album of Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity represent a wide range of figures which make up the cross section of the class of Kraków’s activists, tradesmen, merchants and hoteliers – undoubtedly the social class that had great impact on the condition of the city in the discussed period. By analogy, the photographic studios reflect the condition of Kraków photography from the 1830s until the 1870s.

Keywords: Kraków in the 19th century, Kraków bourgeoisie in the 19th century, the Fowler Brotherhood, Kraków’s Marksmen’s Confraternity, history of photography, 19th-century Kraków photography, Polish photography in the 19th century, European photography in the 19th century, carte de visite

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.06

Information about the author: historian, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Kraków Photography Department of the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7976-2344

Abstract: The present paper offers a reflection on the subject of the presence of animals in the photographs in the collections of the Museum of Kraków. Relations between people and animals are an extremely popular subject in our contemporary world. Our interest in animals has been rising astronomically in recent years. Museums and art galleries do not shun this subject, and readily decide to organize exhibitions dedicated to animal themes. Every time an exhibition of this sort is launched, it draws a large social response, at the same time resonating among new groups of museum exhibition goers. In recent years, a new academic field has also evolved: animal studies, also defined as the study of human-animal relations (human-animal studies). The general assumption is to look at the question of animals from the perspective of different academic fields – not only biology, but also philosophy, history, anthropology, and psychology, while at the same time deanthropomorphizing these fields in the context of talking about animals.

Reflection on the presence of animals in the photographs held in the collections of the Museum of Kraków seems quite indispensable in the present, special issue of the Krzysztofory yearbook, specifically dedicated to the medium of photography. It is worth to mention that animals as a research problem were introduced in the exhibition space of the Museum of Kraków already in 2016, in the form of a temporary exhibition titled Jak pies z kotem [Like cat and dog], where animal motifs were presented for the first time in the Museum’s history. The collection of animal photographs at the Museum of Kraków contains atelier portraits, documentary photographs, reportorial views taken in the streets of Kraków, as well as amateur photographs that constitute a kind of family chronicle and genre scenes showing views of the city and its surroundings. The basic criterion for the exhibition selection was the presence of an animal in the picture, therefore the discussed group of images covers the period from the 19th through the beginning of the 21st centuries. For the purposes of the present article, the photographs have been divided into several subgroups, in accordance with the species criterion, from cats and dogs, to horses, to the special category of wild animals living in the city, such as pigeons and squirrels. Due to their specific character, photographs from the Kraków zoological garden, and those associated with animal care are discussed separately.

Keywords: history of Kraków, Museum of Kraków, animal studies, history of photography, animals, dogs, cats, horses, pigeons, zoological garden

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.07

Information about the author: art historian, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Collection Inventorying and Acquisition Department at the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7370-2642

Abstract: The biography of Ignacy Krieger and his family is full of gaps and ambiguities. Despite the attempts made by numerous researchers, many basic facts still remain unclear, due to the lack of sources. The aim of the present paper is to verify previous findings, and to complement them with new information.

Ignacy Krieger (1817?–1889) and his wife Anna (1818/20–1899) most probably had six children: Janetta Hof (ca. 1843–1913), Natan (1844–1903), Amalia (1845/6–1928), Franciszka (1847/8–1894), Paulina Fuchs (1854–?), and Józefa Baum (1861–1932). The family was of the Judaic faith, however, it underwent gradual Polonization. The Kriegers came from outside of Kraków; in the 1840s and 1850s they lived in Lipnik (currently a part of the city of Bielsko-Biała). What Ignacy did there for a living remains a mystery, and we do not know when he took up photography. In 1860 he opened an atelier in Kraków; at first, the studio was located at 13 Grodzka Street, and then it was moved to the corner of 42 Main Market Square and 37 St. John’s Street. In the early 1860s Krieger also ran a studio in Tarnów.

After his death, the photographic studio continued to work invariably, under the same family name, and was run by his children – Natan and Amalia, who had probably learnt the profession by assisting their father. Due to the character of their work, the Kriegers had connections with Kraków’s academic circles, and were members of the Society of Friends of Kraków History and Heritage. At the twilight of her life, in 1926, Amalia Krieger donated the negatives and equipment of the atelier to the municipal commune of Kraków, at the same time establishing a foundation dedicated to the blessed memory of Ignacy, Natan and Amalia Krieger. However, the fate of that family legacy after Amalia’s death is rather obscure. The negatives were donated to the Museum of Industry in Kraków, and following its liquidation, presented to the Library of the Academy of Fine Arts, whence they were finally (in 1967) transferred to the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków. Unfortunately, most of the studio’s equipment has not been tracked down, except for the table which has been preserved intact at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków. The private legacy of the Krieger family comprises furniture and some smaller objects which had been donated by Amalia to the Museum of Industry (and are currently in the possession of the National Museum in Kraków), as well as family photographs (at the Museum of Kraków and the Museum of Photography in Kraków). The tombstones of Ignacy and Natan Krieger have been preserved in the Jewish cemetary at Miodowa Street in Kraków.

Keywords: Ignacy Krieger, Natan Krieger, Amalia Krieger, history of photography, photography in Kraków

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.08

Information about the author: art historian, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Collection Inventorying and Acquisition Department at the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7370-2642

Abstract: The photographic studio run by Ignacy, Natan and Amalia Krieger is popularly associated with photographs of Kraków from the second half of the 19th century, however, it was by no means the first, or the only studio that produced such photographs in that period. The oldest surviving photographs representing the city of Kraków date from the 1850s, yet it is certain that the set of photographs that have been preserved is not complete. Until recently, scholars had identified a group of twelve photographs produced in the years 1858–1859 by Karol Beyer’s studio (i.e. not only by Beyer himself, but also by Melecjusz Dutkiewicz) as the oldest, however, these were most probably chronologically preceded by two pannotypes showing views of the Main Market Square which had been created no later than in 1857.

Ignacy Krieger opened his studio in 1860, and so did another photographer, Walery Rzewuski. In the beginning it was the latter man who seemed to lead the way in photographing the city, but in the end it was Ignacy Krieger and his children who became Kraków’s chief documentalists. There is no telling what induced Krieger to focus on that particular subject, but it is certain that his studio offered a series of views presenting the city’s major monuments already by the second half of the 1860s. We will find photographs of Kraków in the works of other local photographers active in the 19th century, such as Walery Maliszewski, Józef Zajączkowski, Awit Szubert, Stanisław Bizański, Juliusz Mien, Józef Sebald, and Tadeusz Jabłoński, yet none of them offered services which could match the professional comprehensiveness of the Kriegers. Apart from local, Kraków-based photographers, for various reasons the city was also documented by visiting photographers, while the number of amateur photographers at that time was scarce, due to technical difficulties and high costs.

Undoubtedly, a large part of the photographs of Kraków were created on the initiative of the photographers themselves, i.e. for sale, while the demand for this kind of images may be inscribed into the general demand for national iconography. The Kriegers, along with other photographers, also prepared visual documentation of the academic research conducted by such bodies as the Commission on Art History of the Polish Academy of Learning, and the Group of Conservators of Western Galicia.

Keywords: Ignacy Krieger, Natan Krieger, Amalia Krieger, Walery Rzewuski, history of photography, photography in Kraków, photography of monuments, photography of works of art

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.09

Information about the author: historian, expert in the history and theory of culture, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Photography Department of the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2698-811X

Abstract: The paper is dedicated to amateur photographer Marian Plebańczyk (1905–1973), an inhabitant of Kraków’s Podgórze district who was an extremely active person with numerous passions. An architect by profession, Plebańczyk ran a construction company. Moreover, he was a sports activist, a water sports, mountain tourism, and automobile tourism lover, but also an attentive observer of events taking place in Kraków and beyond. His wide range of interests is reflected in the collection of 135 films that was presented to the Historical Museum of the City of Kraków by his inheritors. The scenes he captured in his pictures document the events that took place in the years 1931–1943. Despite certain technical shortcomings, the photographs constitute an interesting account of everyday life in its various aspects, often inadequately documented by professional photographers. The aim of this paper is to present the figure of Plebańczyk, and to offer a preliminary catalogue of his collection against a backdrop of amateur photography of his time. Among the many themes which he immortalized, the following have been highlighted: family and social life; sports and tourism (including canoeing and rowing, skiing, mountain hiking, automobile and motorcycle tourism); professional activity and public events (e.g. a cavalry parade, Marshal Józef Piłsudski’s funeral, celebrations of the Polish Legions, or the annexation of Zaolzie).

Keywords: Marian Plebańczyk, amateur photography, 135 film, Kraków, Podgórze, sport, canoeing, skiing, Tatra Mountains, interwar period

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.10

Information about the author: curator, art critic, lecturer, co-founder of F.A.I.T. (Foundation Artists Innovation Theory), http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3237-160X

Abstract: The present paper attempts to describe the activity of the Kraków-based group of photographers that existed in the years 1975–1978 under the name Grupa Robocza [Working Group]. It presents the outcomes of academic research conducted since 2015 whose aim was to use the oral history method for the purpose of studying local artistic history. While trying to outline the context of the Group’s activity, I describe the functioning and internal structure of the Kraków branch of the Association of Polish Art Photographers (Związek Polskich Artystów Fotografików, ZPAF) in the 1970s. I also refer to the recollections of specific artists in which they describe their lifestyle and various forms of professional work as photographers that are typical of the discussed decade. Starting off from a group photograph showing the members of Grupa Robocza published in the catalogue of an exhibition which was planned to be held (but failed to materialize) at Jaszczurowa Galeria Fotografii – a gallery that operated at the Pod Jaszczurami student club at 8 Main Market Square in Kraków, I present the brief bios of the artists associated with the Group. I refer to the accounts of specific artists in order to delineate the fundamentals of the Group’s artistic programme. By analysing their concrete works I attempt to determine the ways in which these selected artists perceived the functions of art, particularly the position of the medium of photography in relation to reality and artistic traditions. Through a narrative focused solely on the members of Grupa Robocza I portray the final decades of Polish People’s Republic, creating a very local, subjective image constructed from elements of everyday life, work methods, ideas, and mutual relations. Due to the adopted research method, i.e. oral history, this image is only fragmentary, built from traces, conversations, and odd scraps of scattered information. It is complemented by materials from other sources, usually private archives and the scarce publications. The paper also discusses such issues as art market in the context of photography, completion of commissioned works, and photographers’ cooperation with the Studio of Plastic Arts [Pracownia Sztuk Plastycznych]. The impact of the political transformation that took place in 1989 on the functioning of the photographic milieu, and the repercussions of Communist censorship and surveillance of those circles by the secret service have been described here from the perspective of individual experiences.

Keywords: photography, Kraków, Grupa Robocza, photographic groups, creative photography, ZPAF

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.11

Information about the author: PhD, art historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, the Department of the History and Art of Kraków in the Early Modern Period at the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7772-108X

Abstract: In the process of documenting old liturgical vestments, we are dealing with artefacts which have seldom maintained their original shapes. The changes in their appearance resulted from the reforms implemented by Charles Borromeo following the Council of Trent, which entailed the considerable reduction in the length and width of chasubles. Other significant factors that had an impact on the appearance of the paraments included the wear and tear of their materials and the consequent repairs and alterations, as well as the stripping down of the vestments of their original expensive ornaments (e.g. golden threads, gems, valuable embroidery) in order to reuse them. In the holdings of the Museum of Kraków we can find a number of photographs dating from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries in which the liturgical vestments from Kraków’s churches and monasteries were immortalized.

Two 15th-century embroidered orphreys (removed from the chasubles) have been preserved at the Corpus Christi Church. In the photographs we can see them stitched onto modern chasubles which they had probably adorned for over three centuries. Chasubles from the Dominican monastery underwent a number of significant changes: the photographs have revealed that a valuable 16th-century orphrey decorated with figural embroidery which was transferred in the 20th century onto an older, 15th-century chasuble made of red and green velvet originally had adorned a black chasuble (the latter vestment also survives to this day). Other plates show the degree of damage in some 18th-century tapestry dalmatics which underwent thorough conservation in the interwar period.

The paper presents the value of photographs as an important iconographic source that enables us to reconstruct the changes in the appearance of liturgical vestments which have been preserved until our times. The condition of the vestment at the moment the photograph was taken is recorded in the image; thus, upon comparison with the surviving parament, we are also able to notice certain details that are normally not included in inventory descriptions. Among such details we should mention the replacement of galloons and orphreys, the transfer of fragments of embroidery onto new base, or the degree of damage prior to conservation.

Keywords: liturgical vestments, embroidery, fabric, photography, photographic documentation, history of an artefact

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.12

Information about the author: PhD, historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Zwierzyniec House, a branch of the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3375-8427

Abstract: In the present paper I attempt to recognize the value possessed by a photo album as a source in the study of the history of social life during WWI. It should be noted that the present analysis is the first-ever study of the artefact in question. The paper discusses the fundamentals of the functioning of health service in the Austro-Hungarian army during WWI, as well as the rules of conscription into the army for persons with medical education. I have analysed the structure of the photographs included in the album, grouping them into thematic sets and discussing the places and events presented in them; I have also made an attempt to determine why and in what circumstances the authors of the photographs could have found himself in the given locations.

The Austro-Hungarian army during WWI organized an extended network of medical centres to provide health care to its injured and ill soldiers. The problems with attracting doctors to military service that arose already prior to WWI resulted in the fact that the army basically had to rely on civilian doctors of different specialities that had been called up to military service.

The album that belonged to Dr Mieczysław Górka which is currently in the holdings of the Museum of Kraków is an interesting source of knowledge on the history of WWI. On its 81 cardboard pages 424 photographs are stuck. The majority of them were taken in Kraków in the years 1914–1918, and only a few date from the interwar period. The photographs from the times of WWI document the reality of a military hospital. The photographs that were taken outside of Kraków mostly come from the former Galicia region, and generally document the war damage which resulted from the fights that took place in the May of 1915 (in Tarnów and Gorlice). The most exotic of the pictures are connected with the travels of Dr Antoni Wespański. Dr Wespański served in military hospitals in Albania and the Middle East during WWI, which he documented photographically.
The photo album of Dr Mieczysław Górka is an object of great value for research as a visual description of everyday life in the reality of war.

Keywords: World War I, Austro-Hungarian army, medical service, military doctors, military hospitals, Galicia, Kraków

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.13

Information about the author: PhD, historian, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Hipolit House, a branch of the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7369-9372

Abstract: The market traditions in Kraków reach back to the period before the city’s establishment under Magdeburg law (1257). The earliest, very scarce information on the functioning of market places appeared in chronicle sources, whereas in the subsequent centuries picturesque descriptions thereof could be found in memoirs. Market squares were immortalized by painters, and from the middle of the 19th century onward, also by photographers. The photos they produced are kept in the holdings of the Museum of Kraków, constituting a highly valuable source for the study of the history of market trade and everyday life in Kraków. Especially the materials illustrating the Main Market Square enable us not only to find out what a typical market used to look like, but also how it changed over the years. Particularly valuable are the situational photographs showing its everyday functioning. A lot of attention was also paid to recording the market participants – the vendors and the buyers, as well as the stalls and the goods they offered. It is fascinating to trace the evolution of the photographers’ attitude to markets as a theme. In the early photographs market squares were represented merely as insignificant background, whereas over time they were upgraded to become the central object of the photographers’ interest.

Keywords: photography, photo, negative, market square, market place, Main Market Square, Little Market Square, Szczepański Square

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.14

Information about the author: PhD, historian, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Hipolit House, a branch of the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7369-9372

Abstract: The development of Kraków’s urban space over the centuries, including the expansion of its market square network, is an incredibly fascinating process. Satellite towns grew around Kraków for centuries; their list includes Florencja, Kazimierz, Podgórze, and most recently – Nowa Huta. Each of them had its own unique character, and its own economic dynamics, which was reflected in their vibrant local market places. The growth of the Kraków conurbation necessitated the establishment of new market squares to keep local residents sufficiently supplied. From the 1860s onward, the photographers’ lenses captured the successive stages of the transformations taking place, the establishment of new market places, their liquidation, and the changes in the function of specific squares. Photographs from the collections of the Museum of Kraków show the everyday functioning of market squares from the second half of the 19th century until contemporary times. Increased attention was paid to the visual representation of sellers and buyers, as well as images of the stalls and the goods they offered.

Keywords: photography, photo, negative, market square, market place, Kleparz, Kazimierz, Podgórze, Nowa Huta

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.15

Information about the author: archaeologist, historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Rynek Underground, a branch of the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0303-5260

Abstract: The subject of this paper is the presentation of the iconography of Kraków’s railways in the photographs from the holdings of the Museum of Kraków. Similar to buildings and people, historical photography plays an important role in documenting the transformations undergone by the railways. The appropriate interpretation of a photograph’s content depends on the individual specificity of the representation. It also requires certain knowledge and the ability to make use of other sources and specialist literature. Out of the Museum’s photographic collections a total number of 433 photographs were selected and grouped into sets, according to the historical topography of Kraków’s railway junction. Within the abovementioned selection we can also single out several dozen photographs of exceptional research quality, many of them produced by Kraków’s eminent photographers. The time-frame of the collection spans from 1862 to 2004. 50 of the photographs portray the iron roads in Kraków’s cityscape: the cross-city axis (the Kraków Główny – Kraków Płaszów line), the encircling (or circumvallating) line which ceased to exist over a century ago, an offshoot of the Galician Transversal Railway Oświęcim – Podgórze, the Kraków – Kocmyrzów line, and even the narrow-gauge lines. 262 of the photographs capture selected railway stations, of which the largest number concerns the Kraków Główny station. In the photographs we will find some very well-known facilities, such as the main station building, as well as warehouses that are already non-existent, or relics of the locomotive shed. Other railway stations represented in the photographs include Płaszów, Dworzec Towarowy [the Goods Station], Wisła, Bieżanów, Grzegórzki, Podgórze, Bonarka, and Prokocim. 51 of the photographs represent railway engineering facilities. The largest set among these pertains to Dębnicki Bridge which maintained its original, 19th-century structure until 1945. In the photographs we will also find the railway bridge crossing the River Vistula, the flyover in the Grzegórzki district (including pictures taken during its construction in 1862), and the flyovers crossing over Lubicz and Kopernika Streets. 70 photographs portray industrial railways; most of them come from the area of Vladimir Lenin Steelworks and were taken during the plant’s construction and everyday work, some document the railways at the Prefabet and Solvay plants (both non-existent by now), others were taken at the construction site of Krakowska Fabryka Kabli [Kraków Cable Factory], and a number of other locations.

Keywords: old photography, history of railways, Kraków’s iconography, railways in Kraków

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.16

Information about the author: historian, Senior Assistant Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Kraków Photography Department of the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1429-8146

Abstract: Photography is an excellent source in historical research, especially on what can be referred to as historical landscape (i.e. cultural landscape with elements of political landscape known in historical geography). However, we can be quite surprised to note that many historians only use photographs as pictures illustrating the subjects they discuss – they do not acknowledge their value as sources on the level of research. Of course, there are also some historians who are well aware of the informative value of photographs, but they tend to pay very little attention to the use of photos in their studies on space. The present paper is an attempt to show in which fields photography can be useful, where and how a scholar of historical landscape can use it. At this point, it needs to be stressed that in some cases the typical characteristics of photography as a source that we know from literature on the subject are not directly referred to by the subject of this paper. Nine of such typical features are listed e.g. by Zenon Piech, and in this paper they are used as a base on which the specificity of photography as a source in the field of landscape studies has been demonstrated. The paper also offers some practical advice and a discussion on the threats that historians who wish to use this practically unlimited source of information may face.

Keywords: photography as a source, historical geography, historical landscape, space, cultural landscape

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.17

Information about the author: historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Head of the Architecture and Urban Development Documentation Department at the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9730-5796

Abstract: Since 1976 the Department of Documentation of Architecture and Urban Development of the Museum of Kraków has been taking photographs of Kraków, particularly of the areas located at some distance from the city centre that undergo rapid transformations in terms of urban planning. Photographs of the Zabłocie neighbourhood (a district located fairly close to the Old Town) have been taken regularly since 1981, and together they form a chronological timeline. Each of them is a document, frozen in time, a carrier of information about places that no longer exist, or have undergone substantial changes; it can also be a reference point in a story about the people who, over a period of almost a hundred years, created the industrial district of Zabłocie which is currently in the process of vanishing. What remains are fragmentary elements – symbols in the material, and in the verbal sphere (e.g. street names) – which will not signify the historical and cultural identity of this part of Kraków to everyone who encounters them.

Historical photographs are priceless for the reconstruction of the old physiognomy of Zabłocie Street. Thanks to them and the complementary archival materials, such as maps, prints, descriptions, photographs from the first half of the 20th century, we are able to explore the industrial architecture of the Zabłocie district which no longer exists. In the 1970s a number of major investments in that area were halted by the economic crisis. The expansion of the Miraculum factory was never completed, while the expansion of the Institute of Glass and Ceramics was not even launched, although the land had already been allotted for that purpose.

Local demolitions that increased from the end of the 20th century onward, and the trend to push industry out of the city’s boundaries changed the landscape of this part of Kraków immensely. The few surviving production and office facilities built in the era of Polish People’s Republic are currently being renovated and adapted to new functions. They do not possess artistic value, yet they are valuable as historical witnesses to the vanishing, industrial district of Zabłocie. The photographs are knowledge-forming communications, visual messages that regain bygone places and define their socio-cultural role in the past; as a visible document of this space, they narrate the story of the landscape of the old, lost Zabłocie and the new one – a residential quarter with a focus on offices and services, a cultural phenomenon of development in this part of Kraków.

Keywords: industry, factories, tannery, goods station, market place, slaughterhouse, coal, galvanizing shop, demolitions, revitalization

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.18

Information about the author: MA in library and informationscience at Jagiellonian University, postgraduate diploma in museum studies, Head of Library at the Museum of Photography in Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0180-1577

Abstract: The paper discusses ten photographs from the holdings of the Museum of Photography in Kraków and their adaptation prepared through the application of the MT3D (Multilayer Touch 3Deep) method which allows the blind to participate – to a certain degree – in the perception of photography. It introduces the originators of the Światłoryt (‘light relief’) project, i.e. the Museum of Photography in Kraków and Managers of the Future Foundation MOFFIN, presents the Multilayer Touch 3Deep method, discusses terminology, explaining the meaning of the coinage światłoryt, and by referring to the term of photography, demonstrates the features which the two media share. The author has made an attempt to describe the method of adapting photography, and presented specific elements of the Światłoryt project.

The paper brings up the issue of choosing photographs for adaptation through the application of the MT3D technique. It explains the criteria of the selection of themes, the technique, the authorship of the photographs, the legal status, as well as the function of photography, by showing the details of selecting objects for adaptation. The method that has been used includes the analysis of the photograph, its form, content, function, and the contexts associated with it. The author discusses the rules of creating a description of the work, and presents its necessary features; she explains the term of audio description, and describes the physical form of the adapted photographs. The article offers an attempt at an analysis of the reception of adaptations of photographs created via the MT3D method, and an explanation how (if at all) art translated into an adaptation is able to influence the blind and visually impaired persons, how is shapes their creative perception, and what it can offer to them. The study is supplemented with an illustrative annexe containing the selected photographs and images of the physical adaptions based on them. It also includes the texts of the audio descriptions complementing the światłoryty.

Keywords: photography, typhlographics, audio description, MT3D method, visual impairment, the Światłoryt project, Museum of Photography in Kraków, Managers of the Future Foundation

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.19

Information about the author*: PhD, Associate Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, conservator of art, Head of the Department of Technology and Techniques of Works of Art, Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2958-0048

Information about the author**: PhD, conservator of art, Founder and Director (2006–2019) of the Conservation of Archival Photographic Materials Studio, Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków

Information about the author***: PhD, conservator of art, Assistant Professor at the Conservation of Archival Photographic Materials Studio, Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4319-6061

Abstract: The subject of the present deliberations are black-and-white photographic negatives – a world that is currently becoming a thing of the past due to the vanishing of traditional silver halide photography. Negatives are not the kind of pictures that would satisfy man’s immemorial yearning for capturing the image of the world as it is perceived by the human eye, which explains why they were usually less popular with the audience than the positive images. Perhaps the process of inventing photography could have been shorter, had it not been for that irresistible desire to directly create a positive image. It was not until William Henry Fox Talbot who, in 1841, accepted the indirect path and took out a patent on the system of obtaining a positive image through the copying of the negative image.

But it is, in fact, the negative that constitutes the primary, historic and authentic record of reality. It has higher resolution and tonal capacity than the positive print, therefore, it contains a lot more information. It is not only a source of knowledge about bygone times in the context of what it represents, but also tells us how, and through the use of what methods the given image was registered and made legible, i.e. it bears an authentic testimony to the technology and photographic technique of a given era.

Negatives usually remained in the possession of the photographer, and over time they would make coherent collections which today reveal the technique and personality of the author better than single prints would. Therefore, we encourage anyone to take care of the collections of negatives that may still be preserved in family libraries or the archives of photographic studios and help them survive. The fundamental step on this path is to realize that negatives are, first and foremost, material objects of specific structure that needs to be identified in order to determine the optimal conditions of storage and select the appropriate conservation methods.

Three chapters of the present paper outline the history of black-and-white negatives formed on various materials: paper, glass, and plastic, and for the latter two groups basic information on the popular, simple methods of identification thereof have been provided. Chapter four presents the author’s contribution to the discussion on how museums nowadays should possibly identify the techniques of the most popular negatives, i.e. those formed on solid (glass) supports, and in the case of negatives formed on floppy supports – how the identification of the kind of plastic used in them should be carried out. We believe that rapid technological progress in the field of photography ought to be reflected in the technological advancement of the identification of negatives. We encourage the use of state-of-the-art tools of analytical chemistry in order to verify the evaluations which hitherto have mostly been based on intuitive premises.

Keywords: black-and-white photographic negatives, history of photographic negatives, technology of photographic negatives, identification of techniques and materials, infrared absorption spectroscopy, ATR-FTIR

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.20

Information about the author: graduate student at the Faculty of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, currently working on an MA thesis on photography, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7609-0717

Abstract: Preventive conservation is one of the most important stages of the conservation and restoration of works of art. Preventive measures undertaken in accordance with the idea that ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ were introduced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and following the development of conservation thought became recognized as a fundamental element of heritage preservation. Such measures include actions that prevent the destruction of historical objects by ensuring their proper storage and use. One of the methods of preventive conservation which enables us to protect the original historical substance while making it accessible to a wide range of audiences is digitalization. The specificity and complexity of preventive conservation and the nowadays widely popular digitalization are perfectly demonstrated in the issues connected with the protection of archival photographic materials.

The successful performance of the process of digitalization depends on the correct delineation of its goals, the level of awareness of conservation issues represented by its executors, and the final processing of metadata. Digitalization is a process inextricably connected with many necessary preparatory actions, such as the preliminary recognition of an object, or even its conservation. However, often for financial reasons, and due to the large number of items in the collections, methods of digitalization are not adapted to specific objects, and sometimes conservator’s supervision is not even provided. Despite the numerous training courses focusing on digitalization, instances of damaging works of art for the sake of digitalizing them still happen. Such incidents result from ignorance of techniques and technologies necessary for the handling of archival photographic materials, and the lack of expertise in the field of conservation doctrine. Recommendations on preventive conservation of photographs presented in this paper should aid those who provide care to collections of archival photographic materials. Appropriate adaptation of storage rooms, limiting light exposure, or lowering the temperature may, or even must save or prolong the life of many works of art.

Keywords: photography, digitalization, preventive conservation, metadata, archival photographic materials

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.21

Information about the author: MFA, visual artist, art conservator, Assistant Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Conservation Department of the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4400-4025

Abstract: Since 1967, the Museum of Kraków has been in possession of a collection of negatives manufactured by Ignacy Krieger’s studio. The negatives acquired by the museum had been produced via the application of the collodion wet plate technique and the gelatin silver process. Due to the artistic value and uniqueness of wet plate collodion photography, it was decided that conservation of the negatives representing that technique would be the utmost priority. The museum was granted a subsidy for the conservation of the collection from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. A two-year project was drawn up and launched in 2017; the goals of the project included the evaluation and documentation of the negatives’ condition, the precise description of the plates in terms of photographic techniques used (which was achieved by means of analytical tests), and the conservation thereof based on an individual approach to each item.

The result of the aforesaid conservation works was the cleaning of and application of protective measures to over 3,600 negatives, of which 359 items required specialist conservation treatment and individualised archiving solutions. Among that group, some of the exhibits were cracked, or broken, some had revealed serious delamination of the image layer from the glass support, as well as cracked and powdery retouch layer. After the completion of conservation works, the collodion negatives were transferred to the Digitization Lab of the Museum of Kraków where the digital copies thereof were created to be subsequently made accessible to the public.

Keywords: conservation, photography, collodion wet plate technique, Krieger, Kraków

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.22

Information about the author*: historian, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Kraków Photography Department of the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid. org/0000-0002-7976-2344

Information about the author**: historian, expert in the history and theory of culture, Associate Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Kraków Photography Department of the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2698-811X

Abstract: The paper recapitulates on the projects organized as part of the museum event titled Ignacy Krieger’s Birthday (Urodziny Ignacego Kriegera) which commemorated the 200th anniversary of the photographer’s birth that fell in 2017. It contains a detailed description of the programme of celebrations which included mostly various educational activities (e.g. lectures, an urban game, an educational walk, children’s workshops), as well as undertakings through which the figure of Ignacy Krieger was immortalized in the city’s space, such as the naming of one of Kraków’s streets after him, or the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the elevation of Boner House where Krieger’s atelier used to be located. A lot of space has been dedicated to the Long Night of Museums in the course of which the climax of the birthday festivities took place.

The museum event discussed in this paper was an important step in the process of popularizing knowledge about the figure of Ignacy Krieger and the collection of glass plates from his studio. Apart from its reporting section, the paper also offers an attempt at an evaluation of the actions undertaken in the context of the current Strategy for the Museum of Kraków and the role of educational activity in the work of a museum institution.

Keywords: Ignacy Krieger, photography, museum education, the Long Night of Museums, Kraków, Museum of Kraków

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.23

Abstract: The opening of the Podgórze Museum is a response to society’s desire. The institution has long been craved and, more importantly, developed by the local community. Throughout the process leading to the formal establishment of this museum branch, as well as during the formation thereof within the framework of the Museum of Kraków, the project was constantly accompanied by the voice of the community: supporting, offering advice and suggestions, sharing its personal narratives, as well as physical objects carrying their own stories.

The paper presents the story of setting up the new institution, as well as a report on the works undertaken to create a modern branch of the Museum of Kraków, a facility open to visitors’ needs. Renovation of the building, constructionof the permanent exhibition, and installation of museum fittings were financed by EU funds as part of the Regional Operational Programme for the Malopolska Region 2014–2020, and partly from the resources of the Museum of Kraków itself. The total cost of setting up the Podgórze Museum in the years 2015–2018 amounted to over 12 million zlotys gross from the EU subsidy, and over one milion zlotys from the budget of the Museum of Kraków.

The main (permanent) exhibition is the canvas on which all of the stories are projected, the heart of the museum, and the core of the history of Podgórze. It is complemented by temporary exhibitions that are launched regularly and elaborate on particular themes which are introduced in the main exhibition, as well as by educational events, social meetings, and participatory debates. The museum’s narrative focuses on the exhibits and the stories they hold. The objects themselves would not be able to reveal their stories to us without the agency of people, therefore, it isthe latter who are the second most important focus of the museum’s activity on the right bank of the Vistula. It is also thanks to the people, the present-day residents of Podgórze, and the inheritors of its bygone generations, that the Museum of Kraków has been able to enrich its holdings by new acquisitions presenting the history of this area.

The Podgórze Museum aspires to put into practice the concept of the third place, i.e. the space of meeting, debate, and action. It organizes lectures, meetings and creative workshops, including participatory events. The facility is a place friendly to families with children, persons with reduced mobility, as well as those with visual and aural impairment.

Keywords: Podgórze Museum, Podgórze, Museum of Kraków, new branch, participation

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.24

Information about the author: historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Deputy Director for Programme Policy at the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8460-0078

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.25

Information about the author: historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Head of the Kraków Photography Department of the Museum of Kraków, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7421-7358

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.29

Information about the author: historian, Curator at the Museum of Kraków, Deputy Director for Programme Policy at the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8460-0078

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.26

Information about the author: historian, retired Deputy Scientific Director of the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid. org/0000-0002-0036-8986

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.27

Information about the author: historian, retired Deputy Scientific Director of the Museum of Kraków, https://orcid. org/0000-0002-0036-8986

doi.org/10.32030/KRZY.2019.28