Hungarian Museum of Photography

About the Museum

General information about the Museum

What does the Museum collect?

Of course, it collects first of all photography. Its collection contains over one million objects, the oldest one, a daguerreotype, was made in 1840, and the newest one arrived only yesterday. This shows that despite the historic orientation in building its photographic archive – the museum is not forgetting that contemporary pictures will acquire a historic value tomorrow.

Is it collecting only Hungarian pictures or also those that have a universal value?

The Museum is collecting both of them, but with different objectives. The Hungarian collection aims to be as exhaustive as possible, which means that we preserve photos of all ages, all photographic movements, all important photographers, as well as entire legacies. The universal collection, on the contrary, cannot pretend to be exhaustive, and due to financial restrictions, we only acquire new pictures through purchases or exchanges from time to time. This collection contains the photos of prominent photographers, such as Alinari, Eve Arnold, Mario de Biasi, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Imogen Cunningham, František Drtikol, Walker Evans, René Groebli, Lotte Jacobi, Yousuf Karsh, Erna Lendvai-Dirksen, Helmar Lerski, Robert Mapplethorpe, James Nachway, David Seymour, Edward Steichen.

Who are the ones we're the most proud of?

Above all of photographers of Hungarian origin who became famous abroad. We preserve an important collection from André Kertész, László Moholy-Nagy, György Kepes, Robert Capa, Cornell Capa, Paul Almásy, Brassaï, Marton Munkácsi, Ata Kando, and others. But we regard as equally valuable the pictures of outstanding photographers who remained in Hungary such as József Pécsi, Rudolf Balogh, Károly Escher, Angelo, Olga Máté, and we should mention some other five hundred artists. We also preserve pictures in our air-conditioned storehouse from all significant contemporary photographers, among others from Tamás Féner, Péter Korniss and Gábor Kerekes.

What else are we collecting?

Just to give a brief overview: original negatives, cameras and accessories necessary for making pictures, like camera lenses, light meters, flashguns, projectors, darkroom accessories, studio equipment, adverts, toys and objects from the time before the invention of photography, relics, medals, prizes, archive documents related to photography. Moreover we collect books, journals, catalogues, printed booklets, interviews or remembrances fixed on audio, CD, video, or other media, portraits made by the relatives of the photographers, books, albums, publications, in one word, everything that is related somehow to the Hungarian and universal history of photography.

What are the main tasks of the Hungarian Museum of Photography?

It collects, restores, catalogues scientifically, and exposes the above mentioned pieces of the collection. In addition, we publish books, increasing the number of Hungarian literature specialized in photography by three to four monographs a year. The Museum helps researchers, it is a training place for university students, it helps other museums and public or private collections. We conduct research and develop databases. Every year we organise 5-6 exhibitions indoors of the Museum and the same number in other locations or abroad. We work on acquiring new pictures and on making our services available on the Internet.