Tag: snapshot

  • Photographer Franz Xaver Koroschetz

    Photographer Franz Xaver Koroschetz

    Romanian towns had their photographers. One such photographer was Franz Xaver Koroschtz. He was the photographer of the town of Focsani, the county seat of Vrancea, a county lying on the Carpathians’ Curvature. An Austrian-Hungarian citizen, in 1895 Koroschetz settled in Romania, in Focsani. From 1899 to 1934, the year of his death, he took pictures of the town.

    Documents about this photographer, unfortunately, are scarce, while the year and his place of birth are not mentioned in those documents. Koroschetz was the photographer of the local elite and of the middle class of Vrancea. The pictures were taken in his studio, located in the city centre of Focsani.
    Journalist and collector Sorin Tudose was born in Focsani.

    He is the author of an illustrated album dedicated to Franz Koroschetz, to commemorate 90 years since the death of the artist photographer.
    As part of the public event occasioned by the launch of the album, Sorin Tudose made mention of a personal discovery.

    ”I made a stunning discovery at the Romanian Academy, specifically, I discovered the most luxurious photographic product Franz Koroschetz ever made in his 35-year-long career. The story goes like this: in 1904, the royal family took a train trip on the Sinaia-Iași route, with stopovers in the main railway stations along the route and where, of course, the event was immortalized.

    With us, in Focsani, seven pictures were taken in the railway station. To the right-hand side as part of one of the photographs there is a bloke sitting with a hand of his knee. He was none other than the county prefect, Nicușor Săveanu, who, being a politician and being aware the royal family was soon to arrive, he commissioned an album to Franz Koroschetz, with pictures from Putna County, as today’s Vrancea county was then known.

    There were 14 pictures from the northern part of the county, and this album, once completed, was in the possession of this kid at the center of the picture, he is Radu Saveanu, the future mayor of Focsani and the son of Nicușor Săveanu. This man Radu Săveanu offered it as a gift to none other than Carol, later King Carol II. There was only one single mention of the album in the press of that time and, from 1904 to 2024, no one knew absolutely anything about it.

    It came into possession of the royal family, Carol, Ferdinand leafed through it, as well as the entire royal elite, it was in the possession of the royal family and subsequently it was appropriated by the Academy Library. Until 2024, nobody was aware of its existence, until I discovered it. “

    They say a photograph speaks through itself. Yet Sorin Tudose’s work and passion turned the stories behind some of the photographs into complete stories, when they appear in other sources as well:
    Track: Here we have two photographs, it’s about what the research behind the photographs meant. Neither of the two photographs had something written on them.

    “It is about two pictures taken by Koroschetz, belonging to the Rainu-Neguț family and, in the album, I would have liked the pictures to have Photo Koroschetz as a caption in the album. My conclusion was that the pictures were taken around 1910. Yet, being passionate about it, I read a lot in the press of that time and at one point, absolutely accidentally, I came across an article.

    It was written in there that in the house of Negut Family 25 years of their wedding had been celebrated, the silver wedding. And there, I discovered, in the atmosphere of the event, who the personalities were, who participated in the event, but also the fact that the mayor called in at their place and renewed their vows.

    I took a closer look at the article and I discovered it was written in 1908. And that’s how I succeeded to realize what the context was, when the two pictures were taken. Also, I succeeded to identify all the faces. Which, apart from the intrinsic values of the photographs, the fact that they come with their stories, that brings added value: it tells us who these people are, on what occasion they met, which somehow humanizes, to a greater extent, these otherwise special photographs. “

    Unfortunately, Koroschetz’s Focsani disappeared today almost completely, it only exists in Sorin Tudose’s book. Here he is once again, telling us the story of its disappearance:

    ”Beginning with the 1970s, demolition never ceased to be perpetrated. This, for example, is a church in Focsani, the town’s only church the communists brought down. What you can see in this picture is the princely church, but nothing exists any more. The picture was taken by Koroschetz in 1930 or thereabouts. Comrades didn’t like it, so they demolished it. They didn’t like this very special building either, known as the Economia Bank, they brought that down too.

    I somehow wanted to symbolize, through a drawing, what happened in my native town, Focsani. So I contacted a friend, a woman architect, telling her to symbolize what happened to our town, how it was demolished. And she asked me how I could imagine that, graphically? I gave her two major buildings in Focsani, the Economia Bank and the Princely Church. And I asked her to conceive how a couple of bulldozers were rolling, replacing their arms with a sickle and a hammer. “

    The album authored by Sorin Tudose has more than 250 photographs authored by Franz Xaver Koroschetz. The photographs capture the town and its inhabitants, in their day-to-day life or at special events.

  • The early days of photography in Romania

    The early days of photography in Romania



    Western foreigners who travelled to Romania and settled here brought the art and craft of photography with them. In the mid-19th century, photography became popular rather quickly. After the 1850s, actually, the Romanian photography market boomed, with photo studios cropping up in every major city, and with a clientele eager to benefit from the new services. Foreign photographers made history in Romania. Their legacy is an important documentary source about how the cities and the people looked like, at that time. Carol Popp of Szathmary, Franz Mandy, Franz Duschek, Adolphe A. Chevallier are some of the noted foreign photographers of the 19th century. However, the Romanians Ioan Spirescu and Iosif Berman are also among the pioneers of Romanian photography.



    One of the most prolific Romanian photographers was Stelian Petrescu. He left a great number of photo films and photographs. Petrescu was born in Giurgiu, in 1874, into a well-to-do family and died in Bucharest, on July 23rd, 1947. For his secondary education, Petrescu took a math and sciences track, being attracted by science in primary school. Then he graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry and Physics Sciences in Bucharest. Petrescu was appointed teacher with the Gheorghe Șincai high-school. In a couple of years time he went to Germany to get a second degree, in Geodesy. Stelian Petrescu returned to Romania in 1901. He resumed his teaching activity and had a stint with the Higher Vocational School in Iasi. In 1909 Petrescu was employed as an engineer with the Romanian Railway Company and kept his job until he retired, in 1930. Stelian Petrescu never renounced his teaching profession. Concurrently, he taught sciences in Bucharest.



    One of the greatest events in the early 20th century was the Jubilee Exhibition staged in 1906 in Bucharest. The exhibition was meant to pay tribute to Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringens four decades of reign, which began in 1866. The exhibition was mounted according to a French pattern. It benefitted from the attention of all domestic institutions, also enjoying international presence.



    The exhibition was also an opportunity for photographers to make themselves visible. Attending were renowned names of that time, such as those of Alexandru Antoniu, Franz Mandy or Adolf Klingsberg, the owner of the famous “Julietta” photo studio in Bucharest. Less well-known names also participated, such as Marko Klein, the owner of a photo studio in Braila. Petrescu also participated and even scooped the 1st prize and the gold medal, Based with the National Library of Romania, the historian Adriana Dumitran documented Stelian Petrescus passion for photography, as well as his presence at the Jubilee Exhibition in 1906.



    Adriana Dumitran:



    “His first presence in a major international exhibition was in 1906, at the Romanian General Expo, where he represented the School Department. His participation was noted by the media. He showed photographs with military themes, Romanian landscapes, portraits, animals. He had quite a large number of works on display, although we dont know precisely how many.” Stelian Petrescu rose to fame, his talent was in high demand and he started looking for more areas in which he could use his knowledge.



    Adriana Dumitran again:



    “He started working with the Committee on Historical Monuments. In 1908, when the Committee launched a Bulletin, he had his works published there at least until World War I, in several issues until 1912. He worked a lot with architect Nicolae Ghica-Budești and illustrated a number of books, including, in 1909, an album on the religious artefacts at the Probota monastery, and that same year another one on items from the Neamț and Secu monasteries. One of his most interesting contributions was photographing the paintings of Nicolae Grigorescu for a monograph by Alexandru Vlahuță devoted to this great painter, in 1910.”


    Stelian Petrescu remained a scientist nonetheless, and this was evident in his newfound passion for photography.



    Adriana Dumitran:



    “His interest in the railways converged with photography. In 1913 he published a visual guide of the Romanian Railways. At that time, România had 3,500 km of railways crossing the entire country. He travelled that distance, took photos, illustrated this guide with them, and for each railway hub he presented the cultural, historical and other landmarks. The guide features over 350 photographs.”



    He also continued to photograph major public events. On 16th October 1922, he took snapshots of King Ferdinand, Queen Marie and senior politicians at Bucharests Arch of Triumph.



    After his retirement in 1930, he published his photos in technical magazines. He switched to a modernist style, with photos of railway construction hall interiors, engine components, bearings and other pieces used in the railway industry. He photographed the Malaxa Plant and published an album with the products made there. He was regarded as a “niche” photographer, and his work remains to this day of exceptional value for the history of industry in Romania. (EN, A.M.P)