727
studio in 1843, and Lajos Kawalky who had come from
Danzig in 1838 set up a studio in 1844. József Heller,
opened his studio in 1847 while Ádám Gola, a former
arifi cial fl ower maker, established his studio in 1845 in
Buda, and Lajos Mezey—having fi nished his training
in Pest—started his own business 1845 in Nagyvárad
(Oradea, Rumania). Unfortunately the locations and
circumstances of Móric Zsák’s work are unknown, and
only two of his daguerreotypes have survived, which
can be found at Magyar Fotográfi ai Múzeum (Hungarian
Museum of Photography). Strelisky and Kawalky were
originally goldsmiths by profession. Though Strelisky
took daguerreotypes of many leaders of the Hungarian
Revolution and War of Independence (1848–49), his
photos became lost, and only drawn copies are known
from later newspapers. What survived of him was a
daguerreotype-copy of a lithograph showing the ope-
ning ceremony of the revolutionary general assembly of
June 1848. A stereo daguerreotype of Lipót Strelisky’s
also survived, together with the diffusing-viewer built
in its case. Lajos Mezey, who changed from painting
to photography took excellent shots of his wife and of
himself with his daughter in 1852. A photographer in
Buda, Ádám Gola recorded, in 18 daguerreotypes, the
statue models of István Ferenczy in the courtyard of
the sculptor’s studio, before they were destroyed by a
desperate and bored sculptor who lacked orders.
Photohistorians had long been puzzled by the identity
of the author of the daguerreotype-portrait depicting
Sándor Petöfi , one of the most outstanding poets of
Hungarian literature. The latest research attributes the
shot to actor and amateur photographer Gábor Egressy.
The daguerreotype, which can now be found in Petöfi
Irodalmi Múzeum (Petöfi Museum of Literature), has
deteriorated signifi cantly over the past 150 years but
fortunately a reproduction of very good quality was
taken 30 years after the poet’s death (in 1879). This
photo by György Klösz still refl ects the poet’s true to
form traits.
Commonly regarding the Transylvanian region, it
can be stated that in the fi rst years that characteristi-
cally landlords, and venturesome amateurs pursued
photography. Additionally they made photographic
experiments. Such people were Senior Miklós Zeyk,
Elek Buda, count Zsigmond Kornis, baron Károly Apor
and count Imre Mikó. The appearance of professional
studio photographers occured later than with the middle
or western part of the country.
In the second half of the 1840s more photographers
were producing talbotypes. Alajos Kramolin used this
method in 1847 to take a photograph of Ernö Kiss, a
general of the Hungarian War of Independence who
was executed among others in 1849. Antal Kramolin, a
relative of Alajos Kramolin took a shot of landlord Vince
Perczel, a photograph which attested a good portrayal.
Lajos Kawalky produced coloured talbotypes of the
famous goldsmith József Szentpétery. Amazingly, a
number of heavily retouched photographs by Kawalky
copied onto chloride paper still existence today. Also
notable, 249 talbotype-positives and 3 talbotype-
negatives have been preserved from József Skopáll’s
studio opened in 1848 in Györ, these photos show the
portraits of the town’s inhabitants and include some
shots of townscapes as well.
Ferenc Veress’ talbotype-negatives, one of which
depicts the photographer himself, experimented with
various techniques of photography. János Tiedge left
Mihály Vörösmarty’s portrait to posterity (one of the
most famous poets of the century) and several prints of
these superbly-produced talbotypes have survived.
Károly Pap Szathmári, born in Transylvania, carried
out his renowned life’s work in the Principality of Ru-
mania; his outstanding acheivement was that he photog-
raphed the Crimean War. Another Transylvanian, Iván
Szabó from Marosvásárhely (the present Tîrgu Mureş
in Rumania) received recognition abroad, in Edinburgh,
for his photogrpahy.
In 1857–58 Pál Rosti visited Central and South
America, and recorded his experiences on waxpaper-
negatives. Four albums survived of his photos: one can
be found at the National Széchényi Library of Hungary;
another at the Hungarain Museum of Photography; whi-
le the third one is in the possession of Loránd Eötvös
Geophysical Institute. Rosti gave the fourth one to Ale-
xander von Humboldt, which is now in the possession
of Deutsches Museum in München.
In 1859 Ede Heidenhaus recorded the sights of Pest
and Buda on large negatives which were later published
in an album too.
In the 1860s photographic studios opened one after
the other, and became an integral part of services both
in the capital and in the bigger towns of the country. The
very fi rst criminal photos are attributed to György May-
er, a photographer in Pest, who took stereo photographs
of count László Teleki in 1861. Count László Teleki had
committed suicide for political reasons. Antal Simonyi
put together two albums of the Members of Parliament in
1861, Ignác Schrecker made several albums of the mem-
bers of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1865.
Emperor Francis Joseph I was crowned Hungarian King
in 1867, and for this occasion Ágoston Bülch produced
full-sized, coloured photographs of the participants of
the ceremonial procession in Pest, and later sent his al-
bum to the royal couple as a homage present. An attempt
was made by József Heller to record the open-air events
of the coronation ceremony but for technical reasons he
couldn’t get a good enough image.
Ferenc Veress, ran his business in the Transylvanian
town of Kolozsvár (currently named Cluj- Napoca in
Rumania), and put together albums of the town in 1859