Karol Beyer
Karol Adolf Beyer (born February 10, 1818 in Warsaw ; † November 8, 1877 there) was a Polish photographer of German descent. He is considered to be the first professional photographer in Warsaw and a pioneer of Polish photography. Beyer was politically active and also worked as a numismatist .
Life
Karol Beyer of German descent was born in Warsaw. His father was Wilhelm Beyer (1778–1819), who immigrated from the Kingdom of Prussia , his mother was Henryka Beyer , nee. Minter (1782-1855). Wilhelm Beyer came to Warsaw after the third partition of Poland and worked in the head office of the lottery company of the Kingdom of Poland and died early. Henriette Minter was a painter and came to Warsaw through her older brother Wilhelm Heinrich Minter .
Karol Beyer attended elementary school and license in the Warsaw district of Leszno. A planned course of study in Berlin to be financed by the Protestant community in Warsaw could not be carried out, as studies abroad were no longer allowed after the failed November uprising from 1831. Therefore, in 1833, Beyer began training in a metalworking factory owned by his uncle Karol Frederyk Minter in Warsaw's ulica Świętokrzyska .
photography
In 1839 Andrzej Radwański (1800–1862) showed two daguerreotypes at an exhibition in Warsaw for the first time . The innovation fascinated Beyer, who from then on dealt with it. In 1844 he resigned from his uncle's factory to live for a few months in Paris and to deepen his knowledge of the daguerreotype there. In 1845 he opened the first permanent studio for daguerreotypes in Warsaw. Beyer's most important recording as a daguerreographer was on July 28, 1851, when he was able to photograph a solar eclipse through the telescope of the Warsaw Observatory.
After Beyer got to know the modern negative-positive process at a London exhibition , he geared his business to this production method and from then on ran a photo studio. In addition to producing lucrative portraits, he photographed Warsaw buildings as well as landscapes and architecture on trips to the surrounding area. Many of his photographs have been published and discussed in newspapers. The planned release of an album on Warsaw Buildings could not be realized because of the high costs. Beyer also produced a cycle of photographs that document the events of the January uprising from 1861 to 1863. The recordings of the five protesters shot in 1861 are of particular importance. These pictures, which show the state of death with open wounds, are considered to be the first of their kind in Europe. As a result, they were used many times by the Polish national resistance movement.
A special achievement by Beyer was the panorama photo of the city of Warsaw from 58 meters height from the dome of the Trinity Church in 1857 : 12 photos of 20 × 24 cm each were taken with great technical effort.
From the mid-1860s, many new photo studios opened in Warsaw. The increasing competition led to a sharp drop in prices and the very quality-conscious Beyer could no longer produce profitably. In 1872 he sold his studio to Julian Kostka and Ludwik Mulert, who for a while named the previous owner in their company name.
further activities
Beyer took an active part not only in the cultural and scientific, but also in the political life of Warsaw. So in 1861 he was one of 14 members of the short-term Warsaw self-governing body Delegacja Miejska . He was arrested in October 1861. Photos found during a search of his studio were presented as evidence of his involvement in preparing a riot. He was held at Modlin Fortress until May 1862 . After selling his photo studio, Beyer traded in antique and medieval found coins, which he sent in packages to foreign, mostly German, dealers.
In 1863, Beyers commissioned the construction of a magnificent tenement house on Krakowskie Przedmieśce at the corner of Ulica Królewska . The building, which was destroyed in World War II and not rebuilt, had five storeys, a gloriette and was decorated with eleven statues ( allegories of art and technology) and 16 bas-reliefs of Polish personalities. It was called the "Beyer House" (Polish: Kamienica Beyera ).
Karol Beyer died on November 8th, 1877. The obituary notice in Kurier Warszawski of November 9th described him as an authority in the fields of photography, archeology and numismatics. The funeral took place on November 10th, the burial took place in the Protestant cemetery in Warsaw . A week after the funeral, the weekly Tygodnik Illustrowany published an obituary by Franciszek Sobieszczański. Censors insisted that the article be printed on the inside of the newspaper rather than on the front page.
today
Karol Beyer is now regarded as an important Warsaw citizen. His photographic work was not only a means of political agitation at the time, but is now an important source of historical research. He is often cited as a pioneer of Polish photography.
His work is represented in the collection of the Warsaw Museum with daguerreotypes, photographs (portraits, cityscapes) and porcelain paintings.
In the summer of 2012, a Warsaw history institute ( Dom Spotkań z Historią ) dedicated an open-air exhibition to Beyer with photos on the Skwer ks. Jana Twardowskiego in Warsaw.
References and comments
- ↑ Zakład Daguerrotypowy Karola Bayera w Warszawie
- ^ Under the company names Zakład Fotograficzny Karola Beyera w Warszawie and later Zakład Fotograficzny Karola Beyera .
- ↑ Article First circular photo-panorama of Warsaw , on Eu3d.com (in English)
- ↑ Karol Beyer - pierwszy fotoreporter warszawski , on Culture.pl (in Polish)
literature
- Danuta Jackiewicz: Karol Beyer. 1818-1877 , from the series: Photographers of Warsaw , Dom Spotkań z Historią and Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie (eds.), Warszawa 2012, ISBN 978-83-62020-48-5
- Janusz Durko: Album Warszawski / Warsaw Album. The image of the city from the collections in the Historical Museum of the Capital City of Warsaw , German-Polish edition, Agencja Reklamowo-Wydawnicza A. Grzegorczyk, Warszawa 2000, ISBN 83-86902-73-6 , p. 225
Web links
- Magdalena Wróblewska, biography on Culture.pl from April 2011 (in Polish)
- Photos by Karol Beyer at Europeana
- Historical panorama photo sequence digitized
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Beyer, Karol |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Beyer, Karol Adolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish photographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 10, 1818 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Warsaw |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 8, 1877 |
| Place of death | Warsaw |