Lietuvos fotografijos istorija, 1854-1940

LTFotografija šiandien - įprastas dalykas. Be jos dabar neišsiverstų nė viena gyvenimo sritis. Spauda ir mokslas, kriminologija ir medicina, reklama ir kosmonautika, kinematografas ir televizija, archyvai ir muziejai - visi neapsieina be fotografijos. Astrofotografija, fotogrametrija, spektrografija, infrafotografija, elektro- grafija, radiografija - tai vis gausios fotografijos šeimos šakos. Norint geriau suvokti fotografijos dabarties laimėjimus ir įžvelgti ateities perspektyvas, reikia susipažinti su jos praeitimi ir raida. Fotografija koncentruotai atspindi mokslo ir įvairių visuomenės gyvenimo sričių pažangą. Pasaulyje jau išleista daug knygų apie fotografiją, paskelbta įvairiausių straipsnių. Šis darbas - autoriaus ilgų studijų rezultatas. Čia glaustai aiškinamos mūsų fotografijos ištakos, apžvelgiamas jos kelias Lietuvoje 1854-1940 metais. [Iš Pratarmės]

ENNews about the invention of the daguerreotype reached Lithuania in less than a month. However, it always takes time for new techniques to be matered in practice, and this was certainly true for daguerreotype. Its popularization in Lithuania was slow. Early in the second half of the 19th century the pioneers in the field, if there were any in Vilnius, had travel abroad in search of the necessary equipment and materials. Those who were eager learn the charms of daguerreotype had to go to major European cities, commented Jan Bulhak, who later became a well known Vilnius photographer. Indeed, there is no record of any activity during the period 1839-54, but the Vilnius National Museum does have over 20 daguerreotypes in its collections. They depict people who lived in the town at the time: the composer St. Moniuszko, the painters B. Ruseckas and E. J. Remeris, a teacher of the Vilnius Institute of Nobility, A. Zdanavičius; the others. Leader of the Kaunas nobility, K. Burba, and of course, not only those who were eager to learn the charms of daguerreotype used to go abroad. Many other people travelled on various missions and undoubtedly brought back with them daguerreotype pictures of themselves, as a fashionable novelty of the time. This must be the origin of most daguerreotypes preserved at the Vilnius National Museum.Some of these even bear marks indicating that they were made in Petersburg, Paris, Naples, or Warsaw, however, most of them back such data; among these pictures there may be some actually produced in Vilnius, but this cannot be conclusively established. At the beginning of 1863 there were eight studios in Vilnius. In the other cities and towns of Lithuania there were no photographers, but they spread into the country from the capital during the period 1863-1870. After the daguerreotypist, the first professional photographers in Vilnius were Albertas Sweikowskis and Abdonas Korzunas. There was nothing remarkable about their activities, but it must be noted that they did not confine themselves to work in the studio; they also photographed the city, its streets, squares, buildings, etc. Sweikowskis came from Prussia in 1857 and worked for a while in the former studio of the Vilnius deguerreotypist. Korzunas, born in Lithuania, was probably one of Sweikowskis first apprentices and, after opening his own studio, he took on apprentices himself. The method of training in photography lasted in Lithuania right up to the 1920s and 1930s. Two or three learners, sometimes more, were apprenticed to a professional photographer for a rather high fee. In the first year the apprentices had to carry water, clean the laboratory and wash the darkroom equipment; as far as photography proper was concerned, they were taught only how to print. In the second year they became acquainted with the art of retouching, and in the third they were shown how to handle the studio camera, and how to make the developer and hypo baths.The decade of the 1860s was also the time when the first omateur photographers appeared, but only rich people could go in for photography, since the equipment was expensive. Both amateurs and professionals were required to get a licence from the police before they could acquire a camera. In the early period of Lithuanian photography it was common for the new art to be practised by painters. One of those was A. Straussas, bom in Vilnius in 1834, who studied art in his native city and in Petersburg. After graduating from the Petersburg. Art Academy in 1857 he returned to Vilnius and was engaged as an artist by the administration of the city. He designed stage scenery for operas, directed the paiting of the facades of houses, renovated the interior of churches, planned the squares of the city, designed exhibitions, etc. As a result of his work, Straussas came into contact Whit the photographer J. Brzozowsky, from whom he learned the necessary skills. Straussas began his own photographic carer as a lowly retoucher, but once he had founded a company, his name became well known everywhere. This firm remained in business even after his death in 1896, and indeed up to the First World War. Straussas approached photography as an art medium, concentrating on composition and on the effect of light in the picture, carefully retouching the negative and often colouring the positive. The final result was like a miniature paiting. He was the first to aim at capturing the essence of the sitter's character, as he had been taught to do as a painter. [...]. [From the publication]