Novogrudok - Photography by J. Bulhak. Boris and Gleb church. "Poland in photographic images". Silver-gelatin photograph, signed with a dry emboss in the p.d. corner: Jan Bulhak Vilnius. On the reverse side, stamp: "POLAND IN PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES BY J. BULHAK -No- NOWOGRÓDEK" and author's stamp of Jan Bulhak. Vilnius 1931. dimensions 15.5 x 11 cm.
Jan Bulhak (1876-1950) - outstanding Polish photographer, doyen of Polish photography, philosopher and theoretician, founder of Fotoklub of Vilnius in 1927, and co-founder of ZPAF after World War II. He established his first studio at the instigation of Ferdynand Ruszczyc. For some time he stayed in the Dresden studio of Hugo Erfurt. His first works in Vilnius were created between 1912 and 1919 and were mainly devoted to landscape and monumental architecture. It was these themes that became the leading ones in his work, and it was these that he mainly dealt with until the end of his life. He was the founder of landscape photography. His collection of about 10,000 photos "Poland in photographic landscapes" and his photo library of Polish and foreign photos burned down in Vilnius in 1944. After the war, until 1946, he took about 1,000 photos of the destruction and reconstruction of Warsaw and about 2,000 photos of the Western Territories. He published many albums, volumes and postcards with photographs, mainly of the borderlands, and especially of Vilnius. He was also the author of many textbooks on the aesthetics and technique of photography, sightseeing, and initiated hist. research on photography.
