29.
“Pages from the history of Hungarian photography”
Magdolna Kolta:
Picture-showman.
Cultural history of the forms and customs of viewing a picture.
2003, 194 pages with 107 illustrations, HUF 4.500
The invention of photography is not merely the result of physical and
chemical innovations, but also the consequence of a long culture-historical “learning” process, through
which the human eye learned to see, to accept and demand the three-dimensional reality to be recorded
on two dimensions. Representatives of sciences (optics, development of visual tools), as well as
popular culture (Sunday-market shows, visual games, free-time entertainment) had a roll in this
development of cultural history. The magical effect of an image one or two centuries ago is hard to
imagine for today’s image-consumer. The person, who at first was only encountering secular depictions,
paintings, was more than open to any sort of imagery. The popularity of the picture-showman, appearing
in all sorts of forms, is a proof for cultural transformation not less significant, than the all-so-
quoted Gutenberg-revolution concerning writing. The monograph presents at the same time the history of
face depiction, experiments on capturing space and motion-imitation, the development of laterna magica,
as well as the cultural history of optical tools in Hungary.