Visit to the Ottoman Empire

Dr Dezső Bozóky (1871-1957) is one of our forgotten world travelers who, in the service of the Monarchy's navy, reached distant Eastern regions twice. In 1905-1906, he sailed to Greece and Turkey, than, between 1907-1909, he sailed to truly far-off lands, to the waters of the Far East, to Korea, China and Japan. Our present exhibition deals with his trip to Turkey in 1905-1906, which he did not document in any other form than photographs. No travelogue or correspondence has survived from him about his earlier journey. As copies of his recordings, we know of nearly 300 hand-colored glass slides, which are kept at the Archives of the Ferenc Hopp Museum of Asiatic Art. We do not know what camera he used or how many shots he took during his trip. We have no knowledge of the original negatives either. We also do not know the answers to important professional questions that arise in connection with his photos - why he worked with a stereo camera, and if he did, why he did not take advantage of the possibilities inherent in the spatial effect, why he photographed at a distance at which this is no longer valid - we also do not know the answer. Our exhibition presents more than half a hundred photos from the life of the former Ottoman Empire: important and emblematic locations - many of them destroyed now, also people living those times. As exhibition material, we have selected unique images for the  that perfectly illustrate the interesting aspects of the manual colouring of these old photos. We would like to present the virtues of a little-known photographer with a good eye, who composes well, and who has left incomparably valuable photographic material for posterity.