Johannes Pääsuke

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Johannes Pääsuke
Potato harvest in Tartumaa , picture by Johannes Pääsuke, 1913

Johannes Pääsuke (born March 30, 1892 in Tartu , † January 8, 1918 in Orscha , today Belarus ) was an Estonian photographer and filmmaker .

life and work

Johannes Pääsuke was the fourth of six children in a wealthy family in Tartu. His siblings enjoyed a good upbringing; all that is known about him is that he learned the art of photography. According to his own statements, he began taking photos in 1907 at the age of fifteen.

After taking pictures in many places in Estonia and Livonia , he probably contacted the Estonian National Museum (ERM) in 1912 . In 1913 he started a project for the ERM, in which he photographed the Estonian landscapes, the people and their activities and collected handicrafts.

The largest part of this project consisted of a trip to the Estonian coast and the offshore islands, which he undertook together with an assistant H. Volter between June 10 and July 29, 1913. The two of them traveled mostly on foot and carried their luggage, cameras, a tripod, plates and chemicals with them. 317 pictures of this trip have been preserved, many of them from Saaremaa and Muhu . Pääsuke's work was highly valued by the museum and featured in an exhibition that opened on August 2, 1913.

The entire ethnographic project includes more than 1,300 images on glass photo plates . This includes two larger series: one from 1908 in the south of the country and one from Tartu from 1914.

Pääsuke was also the first Estonian filmmaker. In 1912 he built his first film camera. In the course of his career he produced around 40 short films, ten of which are still extant today. There are five news reports, four documentaries and the first Estonian feature film , the political satire "Bear hunt in the Pernauer Land" ( Karujaht Pärnumaal , 11 minutes).

In 1915 , Pääsuke was drafted into the Russian army during the First World War . He served in a Lithuanian Reserve Infantry Battalion which was mobilized on September 8, 1915 and resided in Saint Petersburg on November 14 . There he was able to show his skills as a photographer, received a camera and was allowed to continue to work in photography in Russia and Estonia .

Pääsuke died in 1918 in a train accident in Orsha in Belarus .

meaning

Johannes Pääsuke is remembered primarily as a folk photographer for his contributions to the Estonian National Museum. By 2003, the museum had identified 1,305 pictures and 723 photo plates as his work. It is assumed that numerous other photographs that could not be assigned so far also come from him. The photographs show landscapes, buildings, people and their activities. They were recorded with a 13 × 18 cm plate camera, but also with other types of cameras.

In the new Estonian National Museum, which opened in 2016, around 3000 photographs by Johannes Pääsuke can be viewed on a high-resolution large screen.

Filmography (selection)

  • Utotškini lendamised Tartu kohal (first Estonian documentary , 1912, lost)
  • Utotškini lend (1912)
  • Tartu linn yes umbrus (1912)
  • Ajaloolised mälestusmärgid Eestimaa minevikust (1913)
  • Retk läbi Setumaa (1913)
  • Karujaht Pärnumaal (first Estonian feature film, 1914)

swell

  • Johannes Pääsuke. Man with Two Cameras About the exhibition at the Estonian National Museum Tartu, 2003. (English)
  • Johannes Pääsuke: Mees kahe kaameraga / Man with two cameras. Tartu: Estonian National Museum, 2003. ISBN 9985-9414-9-7 Pictures and Estn./engl. Texts. in this:
    • Kaelep, Kairi. "Johannes Pääsuke: The story of his life and cooperation with the Estonian National Museum". Pp. 81–93.
    • Linnap, Peeter. "Life director Pääsuke and positivist ethnography." Pp. 95-104.
    • Lõhmus, Jaak. "The once again discovered film-maker Pääsuke." Pp. 106-114.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Kaelep, 83-4.
  2. ↑ Kaelep 85-6.
  3. ↑ Kaelep 89th
  4. ↑ Kaelep 87-8.
  5. ↑ Kaelep 89th
  6. ↑ Linnap 96.
  7. ↑ Cornelius Wüllenkemper: Gigantic glass launch pad into the future. The new Estonian National Museum opens in Tartu on the site of the former military airport. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of October 11, 2016, p. 12.

Web links

Commons : Johannes Pääsuke  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Pääsuke, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian photographer and filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Tartu
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1918
Place of death Orsha , today Belarus