Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde / Galizien und Bukowina

Between Documentation and Staging: Photographs of Galicia and Bukovina in the Volkskundemuseum Wien Photo Collection

The first inventoried item in the Volkskundemuseum Wien (Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art) photo collection, pos/1, was taken by Josef Szombathy (1853–1943) in Bukovina in 1894. It shows Austriaplatz square in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). Additional photographs from the former Austrian crown lands, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and the Duchy of Bukovina, were added to the photo collection from 1896 onwards, which at that time was still part of the Museum für österreichische Volkskunde (Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art) library.

The name Galicia refers to a historical region that stretched across what is now southern Poland and western Ukraine. At the eastern end of Galicia was the smaller historical region of Bukovina. Today, this region belongs to Ukraine and Romania. The former territory of Poland-Lithuania was divided into three parts (1772, 1793 and 1795) following armed conflicts between Prussia, Russia and Austria. Galicia and Bukovina were the names given to the territories that were assigned to Habsburg rule.

Basketry and pottery at the 1877 Galician Provincial Exhibition, Lviv (Lemberg), Galicia, pos/105/009Volkskundemuseum Wien / Photo credit: Edward Trzemeski, CC PDM 1.0

The collection grew significantly thanks to the acquisition work of the first museum director, Michael Haberlandt (1860–1940), for the new Österreichische Museum für Volkskunde (see Haberlandt 1896 and album ‘Right from the start – Die ersten 1.000 Positive der Fotosammlung’). To this day, photographs of and from Galicia and Bukovina have been either been collected, donated to Verein für Volkskunde (Ethnographic Society) or purchased for exhibitions and research. The significant focus of early ethnographic research on these regions is demonstrated not only by the inclusion of approximately 1,500 objects from Galicia and Bukovina in the photo collection at Volkskundemuseum Wien, but also in other collections, such as drawings, Easter eggs, ceramics, wooden objects, textiles, jewellery, manuscripts and paintings.

Motifs

With a few exceptions, the pictures show towns and cities, landscapes, industrial buildings and infrastructure (such as wood processing plants, forestry operations, bridges, railway stations), craftsmen and women and their tools, events and occasions (e.g., weddings, funerals, church festivals, parades), agricultural equipment and work, as well as a large number of portraits. This selection of motifs corresponds to the call for submissions made by Michael Haberlandt during his lecture at the Camera Club of Amateur Photographers in 1896. He asked photographers to submit: 1. anthropological photographs; 2. photographs relating to domestic life; 3. pictures of traditional costumes; 4. cult objects; 5. folk games and entertainment; dramatic performances, parades, etc.; and 6. various scenes and situations relating to rural work (see Haberlandt 1896). Thus, the Society’s collection policy, ethnological research at the turn of the century and the photographers themselves influenced one another.

Typical portrait representations

The numerous portraits of people of different ages in traditional costumes and clothing, which are attributed to different places in Galicia or Bukovina, were taken both in studios and outdoors. The majority are highly staged portraits. Studio photographs taken by Ignacy Krieger (1817–1889), which were recoloured and repeatedly show the same props and studio backgrounds (e.g., pos/889, pos/918, pos/932), can be found alongside seemingly spontaneous photographs by Wladimir Szuchiewicz (1849–1915) (e.g., pos/772). These typified representations of people make up a considerable part of the early photo collection. The portraits were either produced with regional attributions or were subjected to typification and assigned to a territory when added to the photo collection. If this had not been completed at that point, it would be carried out when they were published in the Society’s own magazine, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde (Austrian Journal of Folklore Studies; ÖZV), or other ethnographic publications afterwards. The photographs thus played a significant role in the construction of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ and shaped and influenced their perception. Through retouching and cropping, one specific person or motif could be incorporated into different contexts according to the respective intentions of the photographer or the intended use of the photographic object. One prominent example of these typifying representations of people can be found in the Austro-Hungarian National Costumes portfolio by Josef Löwy and Franz Gaul, published in 1881 by R. Lechner's k. k. Hof- und Universitäts-Buchhandlung (pos/1325/000, pos/68389/000, pos/68390/000).

Special collection items

The collection on Galicia and Bukovina contains around 400 picture postcards, 30 glass slides and 70 glass negatives, as well as various positive prints in a wide range of sizes. Particularly noteworthy is the collection Types of Provincial Carriages of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy by photographer Marianne Strobl (1865–1917) (pos/108/000). Among the 90 documented carriages, there are 16 photographs of carriages from Galicia and Bukovina. An exception to the collection is the album acquired by Wilhelm Franz Exner (1840–1931), which contains portrait photographs of the members of the Galician Parliament and watercolour images by Tadeusz Rybkowski from 1891 (pos/107/000). Unlike the majority of stereotypical portraits in the collection, most of the people in these pictures can be identified by name. A portfolio containing ten positives from the Galician Provincial Exhibition, which took place in Lviv (Lemberg) in 1877 (pos/105/000), stands out due to the size of its positive prints. Mounted on cardboard and measuring 31.5 x 41 cm, the prints are amongst the larger pieces in the photo collection.

Photographers

Below is a selection of Galicia and Bukovina photographers from the photographic collection:

Teodozy Bahrynowicz (1881–1915)

Juliusz Dutkiewicz (1834–1908)

Michael Haberlandt (1860–1940)

Raimund Friedrich Kaindl (1866–1930)

Ignacy Krieger (1817–1889)

Leon Starza Majewski (1856–1915)

Alfred Milan (1882–1951)

Karl Adam Romstorfer (1854–1916)

Eduard von Schiller (1850–1928)

Erna Schuh (1908–1977)

Wladimir Szuchiewicz (1849–1915)

Edward Trzemeski (1843–1905)

Österreichische Zeitschrift für VolkskundeAlbums Galizien und Bukowina

Between Documentation and Staging: Photographs of Galicia and Bukovina in the Volkskundemuseum Wien Photo Collection

Motifs

Typical portrait representations

Special collection items

Photographers

Further reading on the Galicia and Bukovina photographic collection