Aurel Bauh's photography

aurel bauh's photography The Aurel Bauh collection is displayed online

A first meeting devoted to the initiative of the Romanian Peasant Museum's Image Archive to display online its collections, managed to explain the concept lying at the foundation of a platform entitled 'Networks of the Eye Gaze' focusing on the photographs signed by Aurel Bauh. Here is at the microphone Viviana Iacob, researcher and curator with the aforementioned platform.

Viviana Iacob: "In case of the Bauh collection, we have identified several series bearing names like Valeni, Dambovnic, Gurghiu, Valea Jiului. There is also a series of industrial photos devoted to Bucharest. Such series can either grow or diminish following research or external contributions. Anyway, the structure of the online platform has been conceived so as to support such content fluctuations."

Of course such archive content is supported through verified information, specialists refer to as metadata. Research conducted on several sources was necessary before launching the Bauh collection on the online platform.

Viviana Iacob:"This set of metadata is also important for creating relevant connections with artifacts from the same collection and also from the other collections of the archive. Research has been conducted to unearth further information that can be added to metadata. So the history of these negatives has been studied in order to find out when they were shot and published. Several sources were studied simultaneously, such as the photographer's biography, exhibition brochures and other materials about Bauh's exhibition projects, newspaper and magazine articles of that time as well as academic articles on ethnographic research conducted in the period between the two World Wars etc."

Born in Craiova, southern Romania, in 1900, Aurel Bauh left for Paris in early 1920s, where he got involved with the Avant-garde movement. His story continued in Bucharest, where he opened his own workshop a decade later. His collection, part of the Peasant Museum's heritage, mainly depicts scenes of rural life.

Viviana Iacob: "Bauh opened Studio 43 in Bucharest in 1937 and staged his first personal exhibition a year later. Starting 1939 he participated in the exhibitions mounted by the National Travel Office ONT. He published two photos in the ONT magazine, one entitled 'Winter Fantasy" and the other 'Crops". With the latter he reaped the fifth ONT exhibition.   

Apart from that, however, Bauh also worked on a project dedicated to Jiu River valley, beginning 1945. In the fall of 1946, Bauh inaugurated his second sole exhibition, and in 1947, the photographs he' d taken in Jiu River Valley went with Geo Bogza's essay, 'People and coal.'

But what is the way an archive storage drawer image takes, until it is stored in the digital collection? How is a digital collection built, and what are the challenges of such a journey?

Viviana Iacob: "The timeline of the collection as shown in the Bauh biography narrows down according to series, and it narrows down even more according to the amount of research in the case of such series, through the literature focusing on sociological campaigns, through publication, through the moments he displayed certain artifacts. These occurrences are extremes for the entire archives, specifically as regards the amount of research or research effort made, in order to discover a title or a timeline, or in order to place an artifact in context and even to connect it to other artifacts, belonging to other collections."

'Networks of the Eye Gaze" is a digital platform where those who are interested can find the artifacts signed by Aurel Bauh. Also, participants may intervene so that the collection may be enriched and additional information on the collection may be provided.  Here is the chief of National Peasant Museum's ethnological archives bureau, Iris Serban.

Iris Serban: "This is how we have sought to promote the museum's ethnological archives, creating a character which is accessible for the lay public, a real character ,born out of the way the archives have been created, and who lived in the previous century. The project is still in its infancy. 'The Networks of the Eye Gaze' project is much more than a database, it is a virtual space where the visitors is invited to discover the archives stuff, photographs, audio and video excerpts and texts, on one hand, while on the other hand, the visitor is invited to make his own contribution to all that."

The Romanian Peasant Museum this summer launched the first interactive digital platform dedicated to a Romanian museum archives. The Aurel Bauh photo collection can be accessed through the 'Networks of the Eye Gaze" platform.

'Networks of the Eye Gaze' is a National Peasant Museum project, which received the joint support of RIZI Design, Samsung Romania, Gemini Solutions and The Plot. The project's international partner is Romania's National Museums Network. 'Networks of the Eye Gaze' can be accessed at arhiva.muzeultaranuluiroman.ro


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Publicat: 2019-10-05 11:00:00
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