161
man businessman who was collecting pictures for the
Berlin Museum. The value of the pictures was increased
by the fact that making such pictures was not simple.
Concerned about their souls, local people did not allow
photographs, or anthropological measurements of their
height, or of their head, etc. to be taken of them. They
were afraid of “bewitchment,” and frequently ran away
from both the camera and ethnographer.
The authenticity of his scientifi c photos and records
is confi rmed by his incredibly accurate notes. He docu-
mented the exact names of the people, their places of
residence, the tribes they belonged to, their social status,
and offered references and explanations for the clothes,
behaviour, changes in the gesture, such as posture, or
even mimicry. Bíró mentioned once, “I did not tell them
what to do” and that he “just let them be as they wished.”
From his scattered notes we can see his working method:
he developed the picture, showed it to the models, and
then recorded their reaction in writing. In cases of pho-
tographed objects and landscapes, the place of origin, the
name of the manufacturer, way of manufacturing, and
the different parts and types were listed in 3 to 4 native
languages. The same procedure was applied concerning
the technical details of photographing, for example he
numbered his pictures, supplied the brand of the fi lm
used, and what time of day the photo was taken and under
what kind of circumstances such as “cloudy but sunny”
or “sunny.” Additionally, he documented the time incre-
ments the fi lm was exposed for such as “momentary” or
if a “delayed action” occurred, what “iris opening” he
was worked with, and he even referred to the photogra-
pher’s position, like “taken from a speeding train,” and
also gave the name of the developer. He also supplied
reasons for why a photograph would be of a particular
quality and he makes references to his experiments,
which were aimed at making more perfect pictures. One
such instance can be found in the documentations in his
notebook describing his series of developing trials. It
seems thus obvious that the value of the photographs
taken by Lajos Bíró is not merely attached to their sub-
jects like the discovery of the inhabitants of New Guinea
and their way of life, but attached as well to his chosen
and modern scientifi c method and the visual notes that
accompanied and complemented by detailed textual ex-
planations. This detailed work was not a widely applied
practice for etymological and anthropological research
at the end of the 19th century.
The original New-Guinean glass plates by Lajos Bíró
and the album compiled from their prints, his Diary and
the Singapore photo album are preserved in the Budapest
Museum of Ethnography. The original, archive pictures,
and other pictures made on his later travels to Egypt, and
to the caves in Hungary are preserved in the Budapest
Natural History Museum.
Klára Fogarasi
See Also: Animal and Zoological Photography; and
Ethnography.BISSON, LOUIS-AUGUSTE (1814–1876)
AND AUGUSTE-ROSALIE (1826–1900)
Photographic fi rm owners (1852–1863)
On September 1, 1856 a British visitor wrote in “The
Photographic Record and amateur Guide” that the
photographic undertaking of Louis Auguste Bisson
(1814–1876) and Auguste Rosalie Bisson (1826–1900)
employed about 200 people. Of those, more than 50
constantly travelled through many European Countries
taking photographs of which the photographs from Ven-
ice were particularly inspiring. The surviving documents
from the same year depict about 30 men and women,
who worked in the studios and produced latent images.
From 1850 to 1860, the Bisson brothers took most of
their photographs during the Fall.
In 1841 François Bisson (1795–1865) began to
work in his home studio often devoting himself to the
daguerreotype. A year later his son, Louis Auguste
improved the daguerreotype process in such a way
that his portraits became unrivalled in Paris. In 1843
the father and the eldest son opened a photographic
studio in the Rue Saint Germain l’Auxerrois, which
was well-known throughout Paris. At about that time,
Bisson was offered the job of photographing the 900
elected representatives of the National parliament, the
Assemblée Nationale. These patrons were wealthy and
provided Bisson with a table high advertisement in the
likeness of an 1850s panoramic daguerreotype, which
was posted over the studio and could be seen from the
Seine bank. These patrons also expected a certain qual-
ity that forced Louis Auguste to rise to a higher level
of professionalism and ingenuity. Both Louis Auguste
and August Rosalie established and displayed a most
distinct command of photography, which later served
as educational parameters and has been disseminated,
often having infl uence on public opinion.
The introduction of the wet collodion process in 1851
in France brought the brothers to the realization that this
process, in addition to the others they utilized, would
greatly improve their already superior photography.
Previously, Louis Auguste had mostly worked with his
father in their studio, while August Rosalie had estab-
lished a studio on Boulevard des Italiens with his partner
P.A. Guevin, until 1851. Even though many small stu-
dios at the time were becoming established, both Louis
Auguste and August Rosalie independently maintained
their clientele and popularity because they had unique
talents, which transcended to their photography.
Louis Auguste was interested in the technical aspect
and had established a better daguerreotype process. He