An impressive exhibition dedicated to the history and evolution of photography opened on Wednesday at the Upper Olt and Mures Rivers Museum in Miercurea-Ciuc, offering visitors a chance to explore fascinating stories from the world of photographic art.
Titled ‘1001 Cameras and Photo Accessories. A Brief History of Romanian Photography’, the exhibition is organised by the ‘Toy Museum’ Association in Bucharest in partnership with the National Museum of the Eastern Carpathians in Sfantu Gheorghe.
At the opening, museographer Florina Banica noted that the display is built around one of the country’s largest collections of photographic equipment, born from the passion of Gheorghe Dumitru (1934 – 2018). The collection, now owned and expanded by the sons of the photography enthusiast and collector, is presented as a traveling exhibition in his memory.
Cristian Dumitru, one of the three sons, said that although the title refers to 1001 cameras, the latest inventory shows more than 1,500 cameras and accessories, along with nearly 1,000 vintage photographs.
Visitors can view all types of cameras, lenses, light meters, darkroom equipment, projection and stereoscopic devices, specialist documents and publications, and a large number of historical photographs. The exhibition also highlights stories behind the objects: early Kodak models that popularised mass photography, miniature cameras first used in espionage, and early digital systems that stored images on floppy disks.
Cristian Dumitru, who also heads the ‘Toy Museum’ Association, spoke about the transformations photography has undergone – from complex, costly processes requiring technical expertise to today’s instant mobile-phone images.
Valer Rus, manager of the ‘Casa Muresenilor’ Museum in Brasov, where the exhibition was previously shown, underlined the documentary value of photography and praised the Dumitru brothers for preserving cultural heritage that museums often overlooked. He noted that Romanian history museums have tended to focus on archaeology and earlier periods, neglecting everyday objects of the 20th century, which now survive mainly in private collections.
Ovidiu Savu, also from the Brasov museum, highlighted photography’s role as a historical document and traced its evolution from 19th-century techniques to the digital era. He encouraged the Miercurea-Ciuc museum to develop educational programs on the history of photography.
Curator Florina Banica said the exhibition will be accompanied by museum-education activities, allowing visitors to view images through a stereoscope, watch projections and explore stories from the history of photography.
The exhibition is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 – 16:00, and runs until October 30. AGERPRES (RO – writing by: Gina Stefan; EN – writing by: Simona Klodnischi)
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