Goran Malić*

THE JEWISH PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE SERBIAN CULTURE
IN THE 19th AND 20th CENTURY

Summary

The activity of the Jewish photographers has been recorded from the very beginnings of introduction of this medium in the Serbian lands. One of them, by all appearances the earliest itinerant daguerreotypist active in the new Serbian Principality was Josif Kappileri. After him other itinerant photographers also arrived – Kallein, Deitsch, Stockmann, Boer, Abrahamović... First permanent photographic atelier in Belgrade was established by Florian Gantenbein and after that arrived Ana Feldmann, Richard Musil and Leopold Koenig. In other Serbian towns were also established the ateliers of the Jewish photographers, e.g. Rudolf Gatter (who is one of the pioneers of cinematography in Vojvodina) was active in Zemun, than Klar in Jagodina, Guelmino in Niš, Abravanel in Pirot, Weinberg and Danenbaum in Sremska Mitrovica and Alscher, Goigner, Stern and Singer in many towns in Vojvodina. Many photographers also were the local painters and some of them like Goigner were commissioned to work on the church decoration. In addition to the main activity of all photographic ateliers – making photos of individuals and groups already from the middle of the sixth decade of the 19'" century from time to time they also produced the documentary photographs. Besides the town vistas and panoramas, architecture and archaeological monuments the objects of their interest are more and more often also the public events. In the middle of the sixth decade of the 19"" century the photography got the place in the activity of Serbian Scientific Society (Srpsko učeno društvo) and in that segment were active Jewish photographers Musil, Gantenbein and Klampfner. At the turn of the 20"" century the most prominent photographers in Belgrade were Mojsilović, Leović, Pijade and the Alkalaj brothers and in Vojvodina existed many small ateliers whose owners were Altaras, Weinmann, Weiser, Wuertz, Steinwasser and others. The portrait photography as their main objective became more and more stereotypical and apart from few exceptions (e.g. Singer) is not of high quality. In addition, they all used the industrial cardboard products for the photographs furnishing and this even more so emphasized the uniformity of works in the most ateliers. Between the two World Wars there were no considerable changes in style but many new names appeared and few of the leading ones were Medina, Mandil, Koen and Konfino. We also come across the works of amateur photographers but their quantity is not large. Closely related with the photography are also associated professions, for instance, publishers of the photographic picture postcards, sellers of photo-material, and equipment. Frequently all these activities have been taking place in one shop and by a single person. It was possible to buy photo-postcards, works of the photographer as publisher in many ateliers. Sometimes, booksellers or tobacco-shop owners commissioned distinct motifs, e.g. vistas of the towns, squares and streets in order to produce the photograph postcard. The contributions of the Jewish photographers (together with publishers of postcards, booksellers and sellers of photo equipment) to the Serbian culture are multifarious and we are offering here just basic sugestions for the future investigations. There is no abundant documentation material concerning this field and there is less end less photographs, which offer also other possibilities of perceiving and explanation in order to achieve more precise picture not only of the history of Serbian photography but also the Serbian and Jewish tradition and culture.

 

*Goran Malich, Historian of Photography, National Center for Photography, Belgrade