Although amateur or family photographs weren’t created with the intention of being institutionally collected, researched, and displayed, these visual materials have still become an important topic in contemporary visual culture. The collecting of everyday photographs has a rich history in Hungary; hence they can be found in archives of vastly different profiles. With the cooperation of Capa Centre, Eidolon Centre of Everyday Photography now takes up the quest to initiate discussion concerning the different institutional approaches to vernacular photography and to uncover the legal issues their usage and showcasing might bring forward.
The first edition of the event series titled Questions about showing vernacular photography took place on the 31st of October and featured several Budapest-based institutions. The aim of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives is to collect every piece of evidence regarding the culture and everyday life of the Hungarian Jewish community. The National Archives of Hungary functions as the largest archive with a number of locations across the country that focuses on collecting mainly textual material. The Museum of Ethnography collects, archives, preserves, and researches artefacts of traditional and modern cultures, while the archival holdings of Blinken OSA are related to the Cold War and the history of post-war European communism. The guests were Zsuzsanna Toronyi (Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives), János Mátyás Balogh (The National Archives of Hungary), Dr. Tímea Bata (Museum of Ethnography) and Zsuzsa Zádori (Blinken OSA) and the discussion was moderated by the director of Eidolon Centre, Róza Tekla Szilágyi.

From left to right: Róza Tekla Szilágyi, János Mátyás Balogh, Zsuzsanna Toronyi, Zsuzsanna Zádori, Tímea Bata, photo: Capa Center
Defining the practice
The first segment of the panel discussion shed light on the way the participating institutions define their archival practice regarding private photographs. Although Blinken OSA and The National Archives of Hungary don't normally curate photography collections, both institutions lead projects regarding the processing of their photographic documents. While OSA has long been challenged by the paralyzingly vast number of snapshots found in The Private Photo and Film Foundation archive created by Péter Forgács and András Bán, The National Archives of Hungary wrote metadata for fifteen thousand family photographs, of which five thousand were digitized and made publicly accessible online. The Museum of Ethnography has a separate photography collection; however, their snapshots are part of the manuscript collection. On the other hand, the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archive sort their collection of approximately three thousand private photographs into categories such as portraits, urban landscapes, or albums.
With or without oral histories?
Although we all lead unique lives, the construction of our family albums follows certain patterns. Flipping through the pages, we can recognize the same life-changing events – weddings, births, deaths. So, what can truly be reconstructed of the past if we lack information on the personal narratives behind private photographs? The participating institutions reflected on the issue by highlighting the main difficulties of collecting personal data. In the case of materials from the 19th century or the beginning of the 1900s, the archives don’t have access to data subjects anymore. Another factor to be considered is the technical challenges posed by in-depth interviews which require resources and special expertise the institution can’t generally provide. Therefore, the methodologies of the participating archives mostly involve the recording of basic personal data on newly collected objects, photographs, or other documents. The Museum of Ethnography also tends to record interviews retroactively with communities of origin and Blinken OSA – although they don’t conduct oral history research – possesses the sound recordings and their transcriptions of the in-depth interviews the team of Forgács and Bán recorded during the 1980’s.
Copyright and personality rights
In our contemporary digital culture, the act of posting photographs on the internet regularly brings up issues concerning the exploitation of one’s image. Considering the sensitive nature of everyday photographs, the question arises: do archives make their private or family photography collections accessible online? Since the participating institutions are considered public collections, one of their main aims is to provide accessibility for the communities their archives represent. In certain cases, the private photographs they handle can rightfully be published, since the termination of copyright in Hungary is seventy years. As for recently donated or acquired photographs, the participants pointed out the importance of obtaining ownership over copyright and personality rights. However, contractual agreement could only be applied as a solution if the subject or the owner of the photograph can be identified. Although the Forgács-Bán collection at Blinken OSA contains photographs from the 70s, 80s and the 90s, the institution doesn’t have any information on their origin, hence is unable to acquire the rights over them. In order to evade any legal issues, they decided to only make photos accessible where the faces are covered up or cropped out. Despite all efforts, Zsuzsa Zádori, the representative of OSA gave an account of an incident they had with the online posting of a snapshot of a lady standing in an apartment, half-naked with her face out of the frame. Although the personality rights of the subject were technically protected, the owner of the apartment ended up recognizing the background as his childhood home – with a stranger in the foreground. Coming face to face with the negative effect of private meeting public, OSA decided to not share their snapshot collection online.

From left to right: Zsuzsanna Toronyi, Zsuzsanna Zádori, Tímea Bata, photo: Capa Center
The absence of best practice
Since most of the participants have never faced legal issues concerning the showcasing of everyday photographs, they haven’t developed best practices to handle such situations. There are certain regulations archives must follow – for instance they are obliged to inform researchers to not publish photographs found among protected personal documents. In the case of publishing older visual materials, however, the institutions don’t necessarily have knowledge on the legal procedure. Moreover, the conflicts surrounding everyday photographs sometimes emerge out of personal disagreements. If a family member feels uneasy about publicly showing certain snapshots, the moral context of the archival practice is prioritized over any legal contracts as Zsuzsanna Toronyi, the representative of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archive emphasized.
Although gray areas can most certainly be identified regarding the showcasing of private photographs, Zsuzsa Zádori highlights the important role archives play in enhancing the joy snapshots could bring to our everyday lives. By collecting, researching, curating and responsibly making private photographs accessible, archives have the possibility to create a stronger sense of community.

From left to right: Róza Tekla Szilágyi, János Mátyás Balogh, photo: Capa Center
This article is a summary from our event titled Questions about showcasing vernacular photography vol. 1 that was held on October 31, 2023 at the Capa Center in Budapest.
The article was created with the support of the National Cultural Fund of Hungary.
