Ibolya Planck
A
Nineteenth - Century Glance
László
Lugosi Lugo: Klösz György (1844 - 1913) élete és munkássága. Monográfia
(The Life and Work of György Klösz 1844 - 1913. A Monograph); Fényképek
- Photographs. 2 volumes. Budapest, Polgart, 2002, 124 + 277 pp.
Although the number of his portraits far exceeds that of his
outdoor photographs, the study and cataloguing of the latter was more difficult
but more rewarding. Klösz preferred to think in terms of series, which he
published and sold with a numbering and not as individual shots. In addition
to identifying the original negatives and prints forming the series, there
was also the possibility that several thousands of copies could have resulted
from their publication. To illustrate the problem, here are some actual figures.
At the present state of research, the first decade of Klösz's creative period,
(the 1870s) is represented by 260 cityscapes of Budapest, 360 reproductions
of artworks and those photographs he took in the country. The collection was
further enlarged by Klösz's participation at foreign exhibitions (1873, 1885
and 1896) and his series of architectural photographs and cityscapes in the
1890s - including the 430 pictures, mostly interiors, he took of 100 Hungarian
country mansions - which were the high point of his professional career. At
the present state of research, we know of almost 1200 numbered photographs.
Margit Szakács, who pioneered the academic research, briefly mentioned the
significance of the serial numbers.1 The serial number of one of the photographs
in the Hungarian National Museum's Klösz Bequest - 60,768 - should be sufficient
to make this point. László Lugosi Lugo estimates the total number of photographs
left to posterity by Klösz at nearly 4000. In the case of a large number of
photographs, the print has got separated from the negative and is to be found
in various archives.
The Budapest Municipal Archive alone holds a major collection of 2050 prints.
...
There is one thing we can safely say: by 1884,
one of Klösz's main objectives was to find a studio with adequate
conditions for reproducing and marketing his cityscapes. One of the most important
platforms of publication was the popular monthly magazine Budapesti Látogatók
Lapja (Budapest Visitors' Journal, founded in 1888), which continuously
published Klösz's photographs.
The year 1879 marked a turning point in his career, as that was the time when
he switched to photo-lithography, the technique that was to be the hallmark
of the Klösz Studio. However, the mass-production of lithographed drawings,
maps and graphics took place in the fifth, and last, of Klösz's
studios, located at 49 Városligeti fasor. The owner applied for permission
to reside in the newly-completed building complex, which also served as his
family residence, in October 1894. After this the workshop cum studio, which
spread over 800 square metres, began to produce maps, leaflets and advertising
material in millions of copies. After graduating from the Viennese Academy
of Graphical Arts, his son, Pál Klösz, joined the company, which
specialised in zincography and lithography. It was Pál who introduced
offset colour printing in Hungary in 1933. The studio was turned into a share
company in 1947, was nationalised in 1948; finally it was merged with the
Hungarian Geographical Institute under the new name of Offset Nyomda, one
of the major printing houses of the country, in 1949.
Klösz's career developed along exactly the same path as did those of
the period's major photographers. Typically, they progressed from running
a simple portrait studio to owning an operation equipped with printing machines.
We must, however, point out that most of the portrait photographers never
reached this level of independence, although among them were owners of expensive
properties, even developers. To complete the general picture, the work carried
out in the studios of painters and sculptors often drew the attention of 19th
and early 20th-century society papers and weekly magazines, as well of the
art world itself. In photography, the larger portrait studios usually stole
the limelight, although various specialised journals also included brief reports
about photographers who embarked on new construction work, developed their
existing facilities or introduced new technologies.
...
The
Millenary Exhibition of 1896
In 1896 Klösz had another opportunity
to cover a national event.8 The country celebrated the 1000th anniversary
of the Magyar Conquest. To organise and control the visual documentation of
this exhibition, the Photographers' Association was formed in 1894 by the
period's most prominent and financially soundest photographers. Naturally,
György Klösz was among the members. As the chapter discussing the Millenary
Exhibition shows, Klösz was able to turn to good use much of the experience
he had garnered at the Vienna World Fair. But as we look at the shots taken
at the Millenary Exhibition of 1896, besides appreciating their professionalism
and technical competence, we are overcome by a strange impression.
The pictures are imbued with a certain conservatism and staginess. Instead
of chatting, looking around, moving about or being part of a lively crowd,
the people in the pictures stand stiffly in front of the exhibition buildings,
looking straight into the camera. In the age of snapshots, this is unusual:
one feels as if confronted by posed pictures. There is no trace of that hive
of activity one expects at national trade fairs, and the ceremonial effect
is furthered by the pavilions, which sometimes appear like stage sets. One
possible explanation could be that in harmony with the architectural style
of the Millenary Exhibition, which combined the elements of various historical
periods and wished to demonstrate the great role that the past played in the
nation's life, the photographs too were meant to convey immobility as in a
tableau vivant.
Even these monumental exhibitions and trade fairs shared the same fate: at
their closure the goods were taken away and, with a few exceptions, the frequently
highly elaborate pavilions and installations were demolished.9 As regards
most of them, all we have now is Klösz's photographs.
...
Budapest
1873
Subsequent to the failure of the 1848/49
Revolution, the Compromise of 1867 provided a reconciliation with the Court.
Hungary became one of the constituent parts of the newly established Dual
Monarchy of Austria - Hungary. The year 1873 saw the unification of Budapest,
when the administratively and culturally diverse towns of Pest, Buda and Óbuda
merged. The municipal authorities tried to give a homogeneous appearance to
the city by eliminating the differences that had developed in the course of
the centuries. By the end of the nineteenth century Budapest had become one
of the most beautiful and fastest growing cities in Central and Eastern Europe.
The reconstruction of the inner city, the demolition of whole sections, the
construction of two new bridges and the development of a modern transport
system produced a fundamentally new situation. The replacement of neo - Classical
and Baroque buildings by elegant, three or four - storey blocks of apartments,
along with the installation of the accompanying infrastructure, signalled
the beginning of the modern era. The city's overall appearance changed, as
did the objects surrounding those who dwelled in it. What stand out in Klösz's
oeuvre are outdoor photographs that faithfully reflect the changes. The chapter
The Budapest Horizon - Pictures of the 1870s, presents a selection from his
early photographs. We learn that the pictures in the series had been given
the title Budapest Views and The Budapest Horizon. The most complete series
known so far comprises 108 photographs. The book offers us little information
on the locations and the objects photographed, only the size of the pictures
and the conditions of work are discussed. In one of the chapters on the studios,
Lugo refers to a number of interesting early photographs of the public railway
system: the horse - drawn cars and the station buildings. Elsewhere we learn
that in the following decade Klösz also took photographs of the modern electric
tram system: the electric engines that replaced the horse - drawn cars, together
with the carriages and the stations. These photographs demonstrated a technical
accuracy that was characteristic of him.
"If you want to know what Budapest looked like at the turn of the century,
take a look at Klösz's photographs." This advice is frequently given by those
in the profession. For almost forty years, Klösz worked "on the city" and
"for the city"; his lens captured everything it "saw". From time to time Lugo
lectures on ways photographic technology affected the approach to urban photography.
The spread of dry - plates, for example, at the beginning of the 1880's produced
fundamental changes in the previously descriptive character of architectural
photographs. The photographs suddenly came to life, swarming with people,
some looking into the camera, others passing by it indifferently. Klösz's
photographs would deserve further study from the point of view of their stylistic
marks and layers of meaning.
Ibolya Planck
is Curator of the Photo Archives of the National Office of Cultural Heritage.
She has published widely on architectural photography.
