MAGYAR AFRIKA TÁRSASÁG AFRICAN-HUNGARIAN UNION AHU MAGYAR AFRIKA-TUDÁS TÁR AHU HUNGARIAN AFRICA-KNOWLEDGE DATABASE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BORSOS, Balázs Photos of the Teleki Expedition and the emergence of photography in African Field-Studies / A Teleki-expedíció fotói és a fotográfia megjelenése az afrikai terep-tanulmányokban Eredeti közlés /Original publication: Photos of the Teleki Expedition and the Emergence of Photography in African Field-Studies, 2005, Volkskunde in Rheinland-Pfalz, 19. évf., 2. sz., 113–135. old. Eredeti Elektronikus újraközlés/Electronic republication: AHU MAGYAR AFRIKA-TUDÁS TÁR – 000.001.306 Dátum/Date: 2015. október / October 31. Az elektronikus újraközlést előkészítette /The electronic republication prepared by: B. WALLNER, Erika és/and BIERNACZKY, Szilárd Hivatkozás erre a dokumentumra/Cite this document BORSOS, Balázs: Photos of the Teleki Expedition and the emergence of photography in African Field-Studies / A Teleki-expedíció fotói és a fotográfia megjelenése az afrikai terep-tanulmányokban, AHU MATT, 2015, 1–29 old., No. 000.001.306, http://afrikatudastar.hu Eredeti forrás megtalálható/The original source is available: Közkönyvtárakban / In public libraries Megjegyzés / Note: ellenőrzött és szerkesztett szöveg / controlled and edited text 2 Borsos Balázs Kulcsszavak/Key words magyar Afrika-kutatás, a Teleki-expedíció fotóinak tudományos szerepe, részletes elemzése és összehasonlító vizsgálata, a fotográfia mint az etnológiai terepmunka és kutatás jelentős hozzájárulása African studies in Hungary, scientific role, detailed analysis and comparative investigation of the Teleki expedition’s photos, the photography as a significant contribution to the ethnological fieldwork ----------------------------------------- AZ ELSŐ MAGYAR, SZABAD FELHASZNÁLÁSÚ, ELEKTRONIKUS, ÁGAZATI SZAKMAI KÖNYV-, TANULMÁNY-, CIKK- DOKUMENTUM- és ADAT-TÁR/THE FIRST HUNGARIAN FREE ELECTRONIC SECTORAL PROFESSIONAL DATABASE FOR BOOKS, STUDIES, COMMUNICATIONS, DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATIONS * magyar és idegen – angol, francia, német, orosz, spanyol, olasz és szükség szerint más – nyelveken készült publikációk elektronikus könyvtára/ writings in Hungarian and foreign – English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian and other – languages * az adattárban elhelyezett tartalmak szabad megközelítésűek, de olvasásuk vagy letöltésük regisztrációhoz kötött/the materials in the database are free but access or downloading are subject to registration * Az Afrikai Magyar Egyesület non-profit civil szervezet, amely az oktatók, kutatók, diákok és érdeklődők számára hozta létre ezt az elektronikus adattári szolgáltatását, amelynek célja kettős, mindenekelőtt sokoldalú és gazdag anyagú ismeretekkel elősegíteni a magyar afrikanisztikai kutatásokat, illetve ismeret-igényt, másrészt feltárni az afrikai témájú hazai publikációs tevékenységet teljes dimenziójában a kezdetektől máig./The African- Hungarian Union is a non-profit organisation that has created this electronic database for lecturers, researchers, students and for those interested. The purpose of this database is twofold; on the one hand, we want to enrich the research of Hungarian Africa studies with versatile and plentiful information, on the other hand, we are planning to discover Hungarian publications with African themes in its entirety from the beginning until the present day. Photos of the Teleki expedition 3 PHOTOS OF THE TELEKI EXPEDITION AND THE EMERGENCE OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN AFRICAN FIELD-STUDIES Balázs Borsos In 1887–1888, the Hungarian Count Sámuel Teleki, accompanied by the Austrian naval officer Ludwig Ritter von Höhnel, led an expedition to certain regions of Equatorial East Africa, a region mostly unknown to Europeans of the time. From a scientific point of view, it was definitely the most successful expedition by Austro- Hungarian citizens in the history of Africa's exploration. On the 3.000 km long journey they discovered Lake Rudolf and Lake Stephanie (today Lake Turkana and Chew Bahir). They were the first to see an active volcano (Teleki's Volcano) in the middle of a continent1 and surveyed a great part of the East African Rift Valley – two facts that spawned new theories in geology. Teleki was the first to reach the snow-line on Mount Kilimanjaro at 5.300 m, and the first explorer who set foot on Mount Kenya, climbing up to around 4.300 m. Teleki and Höhnel made many observations on the climate, flora and fauna of the territories visited.2 1 On Höhnel's map (1894), the volcano is marked „Teleki Volcano", later changed to „Teleki's Volcano". This statement of the expedition was criticised most. The world-famous French–Belgian geologist, Haroun Tazieff claimed in the 1950s that Teleki and Höhnel were wrong, the volcano could not have been active in 1888 (Tazieff 1960: 225–226). Recent researches suggest however that the mistake was made by Tazieff, Teleki and Höhnel could indeed have seen volcanic activity on the small mount (Borsos and Móga 1986: 113). 2 In addition to the descriptions of the botanical and zoological environment, the travellers brought home a valuable collection of plants and animals. „In the herbarium of altogether 237 species, 32 new flowering plants, 1 new fern, 32 new mosses, 4 new liverworts and 9 new lichen species were identified" (Farkas 1988: 47). „They also brought home many trophies, but only a few survived the Sеcond World War. From a scientific aspect, the 4 Borsos Balázs They collected more than 400 ethnographical objects, most of them from Maasai and Kikuyu tribes.3 Their observations and the description of different peoples living along the route provided important contribution to our knowledge about the ethnography of Africa.4 The scientific results of the journey were published by Höhnel in several articles and in a book written in German and translated into Hungarian and English. Most Hungarian scientists agree that from a scientific point of view, the Teleki Expedition has been the most successful expedition ever led by Hungarians, meaning not only those in Africa. Considering their findings, the unique collection of photographs taken by the travellers definitely has to be mentioned. These photos did not get much attention until their originals were published. This can be explained by the fact that the narrative of the expedition was illustrated mainly by drawings, even though many of them were made after photographs.5 The original photos remained unknown to the wider public, until Zsigmond Jakó and Géza Entz found a part of them in archives of Teleki-castles in today's Romania during and after World War II. Unfortunately, the photos owned by Höhnel were destroyed in the war.6 The surviving material was later published in Romania by Lajos Erdélyi (1977). This publication is very important most valuable catches are the reptiles collected, since as many as three new species were identified among them, all chameleons" (Kádár 1988: 42). 3 All objects were donated by Teleki to the National Museum in Budapest. Today, 338 items are held in the Ethnographical Museum in Budapest. 52 items were sent to Vienna to the Anthropological–Ethnographical Depart- ment of the Natural History Museum in 1889. The original collection of 407 items contained the possessions of 11 different peoples. The majority of the items came from Kikuyu (31%) and Maasai (22%) tribes. Most of the objects are weapons (38%) and jewels (34%), the rest are clothes, pots and tools. The value of the collection must not be underestimated, as it shows the material culture of African peoples before the invasion of European goods. This can best be seen by the high rate of traditional materials in the jewels: 60% of them are without European glass pearls (Borsos 1998: 75–84). 4 Tо evaluate the ethnographic descriptions of the Teleki expedition, refer to the author's book on this topic (Borsos 1998), in which he compared the expedition's narratives with the accounts of other African travellers. 5 The German (Höhnel 1892а), the Hungarian (Höhnel 1892b) and the English editions (16h-nel 1894) are nearly identical in terms of illustrations. 6 Erdélyi 1977: 70. Photos of the Teleki expedition 5 as the original photographs of the African expeditions were seldom published. Unfortunately, very few pictures on the newly discovered territory north of Lake Baringo were preserved: In Erdélyi's book there is only one and it is of poor quality, too.7 Yet, the narrative talks about pictures taken around Lake Rudolf and some of the drawings showing this territory were made after photos. Kikuyu warriors, Erdélyi 1977: 35. In Kikuyuland, Erdélyi 1977: 37. 7 Erdélyi 1977: photo 52. 6 Borsos Balázs Nevertheless, the existing collection is remarkable, too. Though they were not the only explorers equipped with cameras8, they are among the first who published photo-prints in their narratives in addition to illustrations drawn after photographs. Taking photos became easier and more frequent at the time of their expedition, as new photographic tools became widely available. Between 1871 and 1878 the so called dry plates (bromide gelatine plates) were invented, easier to handle and keeping the quality of the picture for a longer time without having to be developed.9 What caused real difficulties was carrying the bulky cameras and a vast amount of supplies into the bush and protecting them from heat and damage, then to transport the exposed plates unbroken to the place of development. In Kikuyuland, Höhnel 1892а: 433. At the beginning