SUMMARY 1997/3-4

Part 1 of a three part documentary report by Ferenc Markovics on the 40th anniversary of the Association of Hungarian Photoartists was published in the previous issue. It dealt with the foundation and with events in the early period of the Association. Part 2 revives the memories of the sixties by a memoir by Imre Fenyő one-time economic manager, and Sándor Bacskai’s interview with Magda Bilkei-Gorzó manager of the Photo Archive and with Sándorné Méth ex-managing secretary.

Gerald Zugmann is a zealous researcher of the world beyond the horizon. He has an interest in photographing the physiognomy of man and objects, and in searching the mysteries of the Creation. In his view, objects of the world have been created precisely to help him compile a “still life” of them, György Szegő writes in his report on the exhibition “Architecture in a box”.

Photos in Nude of László Körtvélyesi nicknamed “Körte” (Pear) are on show in the Polaroid Gallery. As evidenced by his photos, “Körte” is a straightforward man. He is not ashamed to see his models or himself as in reality, Péter Timár writes of him.

Csilla Csorba E. “From experimenting to self-realization”, it is a commemorative report on Hungarian lady photographers on the turn of the century , giving insight into photography from the beginning to the early twenties. The study provides more information about Erzsi Gaiduschek, Erzsi Landau, Ilka Révai and Olga Máté most talented photographer in the late 19th century.

A series of theses by the students of a joint postgraduate training of the Eötvös Loránd University and the Hungarian National Museum is continued by introducing photographers of Székesfehérvár, providing lots of information among others about the Pribék Studio founded in 1860, the Rembrandt Fényirda, the Szigeti dynasty, Károly Tóth until the end of World War II.

Béla Albertini: Our photographic culture growing richer – it is a book-review about “Photographers and Photographic Studios in Hungary (1840–1945)” by Margit Szakács one-time curator of the Photo Archives of the Hungarian National Museum.

On the 80th anniversary of the NIKON Corporation, Endre Schwanner tells the story of the company and the history of their photographic devices, in three chapters.

Chapter Nikon 1917–1997 gives an account of the foundation and the development of the company and the main groups of its products. Chapter 50 year history of Nikon cameras contains the main technical data of models NIKON I to F5 as well as the year of their putting on the market, and reports on the milestones in its technical development, elaborating on TTL exposure metering and autofocus. Chapter Sixty-five years of Nikkor lenses gives an account of such lenses that counted as advanced at the time they had been put on the market. The author elaborates on ED-glasses and internal focusing, as well as on AI and AI-S connections and AF, AF–I, AF–S and D lenses.

The photos to Visiting two Nikon factories were taken by photographer László Z. Nagy in the Mito Plant and the Tochigi Plant in 1991.

Testing high-tech cameras is a summary of a report published in the German “COLOR FOTO” Vol 97/2 on a test in which the autofocus and exposure accuracy of CANON EOS1N, CONTAX AX, MINOLTA 9xi and NIKON F5 was measured.

In Nikon cameras on auction Zoltán Fejér reports on Nikon products auctioned at Christie’s.

”Gyár állott – most kőhalom”, Part 2 – Zoltán Fejér reports on the Hungarian photocamera manufacturing and the rise and the decline of the Gamma Works known for Duflex and the Hungarian Optical Works (MOM) known for Momikon.