This page offers the digital database of Margit Szakács’s book “Fényképészek és fényképészműtermek Magyarországon (1840-1945)” [Photographers and Photograph Studios in Hungary (1840-1945)]. The book was published by the Hungarian National Museum in 1997 but is not available any more, therefore we thought that the most worthy way of keeping the memory of the author (who passed away in 2011) is to make this work, fundamentally important for photohistorical research, available with the help of modern technology.

Margit Szakács gathered the data of her book with the four-decade-long study of the photographs kept in the Historical Photo Department of the Hungarian National Museum. Her database was supplemented with the new data found in the two decades passed since the book’s publication, some data were clarified; and now we present the compilation to the public.

The work, however, is not over yet. We kindly ask those specialised in the history of photography or simply interested in the topic to send any new information, even if s/he already published it, to the following address: bognar.katalin@hnm.hu

The data you send have to be supported by concrete documents. By working together with the data providers we can expand and improve Margit Szakács’s pioneer compilation, and from time to time we will be able to supplement and clarify the pieces of information in the charts, and thus help everybody in the dating of old photographs.

Although the title of the book indicates the photographers and studios in Hungary, we do not want to limit ourselves to the photographers of present day’s Hungary when we supplement the database. We want to pay attention to the work of the studios and their founders who fell outside the country with the territorial changes, and we also want to track the work of the Hungarian photographers who left the country and became famous elsewhere. Thus we can add any proved information on photos and photographers related to Hungary, including foreigners’ photos taken in Hungary.

The year 1945 as a closing date is of course not set in stone either. Some of the photographers working in the originally explored period kept on doing their job after the war.

We present the data of the book in three documents.

The file “budapest” lists the persons and studios who/which worked in Budapest or in those parts of the capital which were annexed later to the city.

The file “hungary” gives the pieces of information related to Hungary, except for Budapest; and the file “world” presents our knowledge related to the rest of the world.

When using the database, it is useful to know:

– the dates given to the photographers’ work indicate the period which we know about and which could be proved, but they do not cover the whole period of a photographer’s work in all of the cases;

– in some cases there are dates under a photographer’s name from the years when s/he was already dead. These cases are (generally) not misprints: the studio could work on under the same name with the help of the heirs or the employees;

– when searching geographical locations it can be useful to try the name of the given place in different languages (for example Wien/Bécs, Bratislava/Pozsony).

All constructive suggestions and clarifying data are welcome!
The coworkers of the Historical Photo Department of the Hungarian National Museum
Budapest, June 2016

By June 2022 the following people helped our work:
Aggod Zsuzsa, Andrási Jánosné Cuhavölgyi Klára, Apor Eszter, Baji Etelka, Balogh János Mátyás, Bata Tímea, Bernátsky Ferenc, Bzsoch Gizella, Marius Campeanu, Demeter Zsuzsanna, Fábián Borbála, Feketéné Varga Nóra, Flesch Bálint, Fodor László, Fricz-Molnár Péter, Gyurgyovits Ádám, Havas Péter, Horváth Csaba, Jalsovszky Katalin, Kálmánné Bertalan Gizella, Kárpáti Miklós, Kocsi Imre, José Andrés Lacko, Lengyel Beatrix, Máté Zsuzsanna, Megyeri Anna, Méry Erzsébet, Móricz Péter, Morvay Kinga, Ormos József, Philpott Beatrix, Pintér Gyuláné Éva, Porosz Péter, Rainer Pál, Rátonyi Gábor Tamás, Sebő Judit, Stemlerné Balog Ilona, Szabóné Dúl Katalin, Székelyné Kőrösi Ilona, Szibler Gábor, Szirányi Ákos, Szöllősi Ferenc, Táborosi Attila, Török Róbert, V. Kápolnás Mária, Vedres Ágnes, Víg Márta, Vörös Éva