It is, then, a specific work, situating between an art manifesto, a photo album, and a textbook for advanced amateurs. As much as Bułhak's publications were groundbreaking for the Polish scene, Fotografika stands out among the photobooks of the time through its conservative, but nevertheless solid, print form, manifested not so much in the pictorial and impressionist style of the art photographs, as in the layout of the book (photographs printed on separate, glossy paper leaves, and accompanied by didactic comments).
In Fotografika, Bułhak also displays his care and attention towards the quality of photographic reproductions: “requiring the publisher and printer to be faithful to the original should in fact fall within the remit of the copyright law, however in order to verify the breach of this law, the common artistic level ought to be immeasurably higher than it is today.”
This issue has been henceforth (and up to this day!) one of the greatest grievances of the photographers working and publishing in Poland. Perhaps Bułhak was also the first one to publicly draw attention to this problem, connected to the mass development of the publishing industry. In this sense, Fotografika was pioneering for the conscious consideration of form and quality of photo publications in Poland.
The book establishes Jan Bułhak as a father figure to generations of ambitious photography amateurs seeking aesthetic practice and photographers aspiring to be called artists, as well as offers an interesting contribution to reflection on the image of the artist. It does not only mark the birth of the awareness of the photographic medium's artistic features, but also of the social and professional status of an artist photographer (the author devotes one of the chapters to the issue of copyrights and compensation). The book ends with advertisements of the “Artist-photographer” Jan Bułhak, who could also be considered a prominent producer when it came to the self-promotion and entrepreneurial organization of a photographer's activity. Publishing his own photographs in the form of albums with original prints (Bułhak even published sales brochures for these editions), but also on postcards, as well as making them available for the press or tourist publications – were all immanent elements of the work of the photographer, who consistently implemented the idea of pictorial photography through all possible means of photographic distribution, especially the one that was fundamental in the 20th century – print.
Photographs and text: Jan Bułhak
graphic design: –
publisher: Trzaska, Evert i Michalski S.A. Warsaw
year of publication: 1931
volume: 176 pages + 30 double-sided leaves with photographs
format: 23.5 x 17.5 cm
cover: linen hardcover
print run: 1250
Original text: polishphotobook.tumblr.com, transl. Ania Micińska, July 2015