8. LOS DOCE DEL MUULASTERIO
9.2. SOBRE EL MUULASTERIO DE MÉXICO EN SALTILLO
ABSTRACT: In the transition process from analog to digital photography, a phenomenon that started taking place at the end of the 20th century, most of the analog photo factories shut down. As a result, production of photo equipment is substantially diminishing and centuries old tradition of analog film photography is disappearing into history. This work explores the case study of Fotokemika factory (1947-2012), once a famous and respectable photo factory during Yugoslavia period, later the Republic of Croatia, as an example of the shutdown of an industrial unit that produced equipment for processing film photography. The study examines the history of the factory, the achievements in the fields of advertisement, design and influence on the development of analog film photography in the territory of Croatia. It also aims to valorise analog film photography as a cultural heritage and to contribute to a better understanding of the position of film analog photography processes and techniques in the 21st century.
Keywords: analog photography, analog technique, intangible heritage
1. THE DISAPPEARING ART OF ANALOG PHOTOGRAPHY
Society is currently going through extreme changes, due to a period of rapid technological advancement. Most of the times, we are not completely conscious of the fact that we are quickly adapting to using new pieces of technology. New technologies are making our lives easier on a day-to-day basis and continually changing our habits and ways of doing things. There are many examples of this impact in different fields, especially after entering into the new millennium in which digital technology culminates. If we look at the case of telephones, twenty years ago it was normal for every house to have wire/landline devices. Nowadays, the traditional telephones have almost disappeared and phones have become ‘smart’, with everything required to satisfy our needs, even with quality digital photo cameras inside.
More than one hundred years ago, George East- man, as the result of the invention of capturing light on photo sensitive material (celluloid film), created the photographic industry, based on chemical processes and standardization of film cameras – what is called, from the authors’ perspective, analog or film photography. The major difference between tradi- tional film and digital cameras is how they captures the image. Digital cameras use a solid-state device
called an image sensor instead of film. Improving technology to better capture light to create an image, from the chemical process to the digital process, has changed many things in the world that go beyond just creating photographs; it changed people’s lives, from habits to industry.
The rapid progress of technology made digital photo cameras more affordable and, as prices fell, the need for film and analog cameras declined. The law of supply and demand and the transition of the media caused an accelerated collapse of the analog photo industry. In 2005 Kodak started shutting down plants and demolishing factories, and in 2012 the company declared complete bankruptcy. The decline of chemi- cal film developing, during the digital era, was not responsible for destroying only one brand or industry; it took hold across the world. For example, Ilford Company, the black-and-white film manufacturer based in Britain, closed many parts of its factory. Also, the European factory of Kodak, in Chalon-sur- Saône, France, the birthplace of photography, closed its doors in 2006 and the same happened to the famous brand Polaroid, which had a factory in Mas- sachusetts, USA. Fotokemika factory, in Samobor, Croatia, did not escape to this fate; their machines stopped production in 2012, the year that marks the final nail in the coffin for the analog photographic industry.
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2. HISTORY OF FOTOKEMIKA FACTORY The birth of the photo industry in former Yugoslavia started after the World War II, in a time of major renovation and demand of the market. By merging the companies Photo and Ozacel, a group of photographers and photographic experts formed the stock company named Fotokemika, which began building a factory in Zagreb in 1946. The idea of creating a larger company started as an initiative of this group of people deeply involved in photography, led by Viktor Riedl, who become the first director of Fotokemika. Beside Riedel, who enthusiastically pushed the project, the engineer Maks Plotnikov and his chemistry knowledge were the basis on which the factory started its production.
Black and white photo paper, photo chemicals, and simple cameras were first produced. Soon after, in 1952, the new plant in Samobor was opened and photographic, cinematographic and X-ray films were produced there. At that point, the only countries that had a photo industry were Germany, Belgium, England, France, Italy, the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USA and Japan.
Besides Maks Plotnikov, there were some other leading names from the chemistry world working in Fotokemika, such as Ivan Jerman, who was, in the period of 1950s, the director of the chemistry industry in Croatia and later director of Fotokemika. He and a team of experts improved photo materials on a world level and created the brand Efke.
The period during the 1950s and 1960s was seen as a 'golden era’ for Fotokemika. After the war in Croatia, in 1994, Fotokemika was privatized and continued working until 2012.
What started as a small regional company became a major actor in the photo industry with the creation of brand eFKe. To improve the materials production, a laboratory for chemical testing was established in- side Fotokemika and it based its research on films and materials for analog photographic processes. In Fig- ure 1, some photos of this laboratory in Fotokemika
Institute for research and development are presented.
Figure 1. Research laboratory in Fotokemika, 1950s, Fotokemika magazine, 1954-1955.
1 Fotokemika, list radnog kolektivnog poduzeća,‘Fotokemika‘
tvornice filmova i fotopapira (Fotokemika, magazine of
Due to the lack of money and competition from large conglomerates like Kodak, Fotokemika stopped pursuing to improve their technology for films in color in the 1980s but it continued with black and white production, which made it the last factory in the world to produce films with silver.
2.1 Avant-garde design and marketing strategy of Fotokemika
For many years, in the main square in Zagreb, stood a big neon sign with the logo of Fotokemika and the Efkić characters, a personalized name which derivates from the Efke brand. The image of a person holding the camera ready for shooting became the symbol of the city's main square. When the factory was closed that image, which constituted the trademark of square, was left to oblivion.
The recognizable logo was created by Josip Sudar and Dušan Bekar, a team of an advertising expert and a designer. They were responsible for many propaganda campaigns and also for the creation of the public image of Fotokemika in 1950s.
Josip Sudar graduated from the Faculty of Economics in Zagreb and he is considered a pioneer in advertising, not only in Croatia but in all the territory of former Yugoslavia. He was a top propaganda expert who created campaigns for many enterprises, including Fotokemika, where he worked from 1953 to 1966, when he left to start working as a university professor. Besides economics, he also studied acting and directing. He directed one of first animation films in the famous Zagreb School of Animation. Probably, this artistic note of his character marked his propaganda campaign for Fotokemika. Moreover, he was much more than just an employee; he was a passionate photographer, always involved in other activities of the factory. He was a regular member of the jury in the exhibition of Fotokemika amateur club and also a jury for the XI International
Exhibition of Photography, with the most known
Croatian photographers of that time: Tošo Dabac, Mladen Grčević and Milan Pavić.
In an interview in the Fotokemika magazine issue from 1995, he explained how he came to the idea of Fotokemika logo and what it represented: My basic
idea was to show, through a visual presentation, that taking photos was such an easy thing that anyone could do it, even a little kid (it was not define whether the image corresponded to a male or a female character)1.
With a public image he wanted, in the first phase, to create the idea that photography was available to everyone. Many of his propaganda slogans were playing on a family card, with titles like: Photos are
working collective enterprises, ‘Fotokemika‘ factory of films and photo paper), broj 2, Zagreb, 1995, p. 9
one of the best memories in life, and therefore shoot everything that you want to save!; Today, tomorrow, you will be glad to find an image from childhood in an album; In summer and in winter, shoot your baby with EFKA film; Shoot, because shooting is giving you joy and happiness; Enjoy life, shoot! Stop the time... Shoot!2
Sudar was playing with humour, memories, joy, happiness and life; a formula that guaranteed success. His advertisement was marked, with a hidden motto, ‘photography for everyone ‘.
Another influential figure in the branding of Efke was Dušan Bekar, responsible for the visual part. He started by creating an attractive logotype showing a young man holding a camera, that did not change from the 1950s to the closing of the factory (Figure 2). He and Sudar did all the visuals for the propaganda in 1950s and almost all in 1960s. Bekar graphic design for product line was based in geometric abstraction, a dominant trend in painting at that time.
Figure 2. Fotokemika logo, Fotokemika magazine, 1954-1955.
The work of Aleksandar Srnec, an avant-garde artist, should also be mentioned. Srnec was one of the members of group EXAT 51, whose aesthetics was marked by pure geometric abstraction. In a manifesto, they proclaimed the idea that there was no difference between the so-called pure and applied art. For Fotokemika, Aleksandar Srnec did three advertising posters and a few drafts for New Year's cards during the years 1960 and 1961. Today, one of the posters belongs to the collection of the Museum of Art and Crafts in Zagreb, and the rest is in the private collection of Marinko Sudac, collector of progressive avant-garde, neo-avant-garde, and post-avant-garde art. In Figure 3, one of the posters belonging to Sudac’s collection is presented.
In that context, Fotokemika found its place. Thanks to Josip Sudar and his vision of a very modern public image, the Efke brand was born. By employing the leading artists of that time, Fotokemika created avant- garde designs for posters and products, which from today point of view should be considered as works of art.
When Fotokemika was formed, the business
2 Collected slogans from the magazine Fotokemika, list radnog
kolektivnog poduzeća,‘Fotokemika‘ tvornice filmova i fotopapira (Fotokemika, magazine of working collective enterprises, ‘Fotokemika‘ factory of films and photo paper), from 1954-1955
direction was aware of the fact that part of their market was going to be the amateur photographs. They were also conscious that they needed to promote amateur photography through education to incentive new customers and markets.
Figure 3. Aleksandar Srnec graphic design for Fotokemika, 1960, Marinko Sudac Collection
2.2 Fotokemika’s impact on the development of amateur photography in former Yugoslavia
Fotokemika achieved these goals by connecting with clubs in different cities in former Yugoslavia. It is important to emphasize that clubs had a long tradition in the country and they were central points for the development of photography. After World War II, amateur clubs were still the centres that spread photography and made it available and affordable for anybody who wanted to do it. It should not be forgotten that in this period an important repression was going on in these countries, and photography was still an expensive sport. There was a lack of materials, cameras, dark rooms, and also knowledge.
In the 1950s, the most important institution for amateur photography was the Union of photo and film
amateurs Yugoslavia. In the first congress held in
1955, in Novi Sad, Josip Bosnar was elected president and Ivan Jerman, at that time the director of Fotokemika, vice president. In a letter that Bosnar wrote to Jerman he said: Congratulations on your
selection. We are convinced that cooperation with Fotokemika will be significant for the work of the Union, because it will represent strengthening of our photo industry with community organizations.3
Fotokemika was providing materials for shooting and developing in dark rooms either for free or at very low prices. They also published Tips for good
photography along with the booklet Tips for photo
3 Fotokemika, list radnog kolektivnog poduzeća,‘Fotokemika‘
tvornice filmova i fotopapira (Fotokemika, magazine of working collective enterprises, ‘Fotokemika‘ factory of films and photo paper), broj 2, Zagreb, 1955, p. 8
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amateurs, which they offered to amateur photo clubs
and to their members to promote photography.
3. CONCLUSION
With the invention of digital photography, the process for obtaining an image started to become much faster. In the case of digital recording of light, we have the possibility of visualizing the photos that were taken immediately. This is the key factor that has pushed analog photography from global use. In fact, the fast and frequent improvements in technology of digital photography diminished substantially the prices of the devices and the analog process was almost unnecessary. This caused a decline in the markets related to analog photography and in a domino effect, the factories related to it were closed. As a consequence, the equipment required for the analog process, such as films, papers and chemicals almost disappeared. Without materials, it has become harder and harder to revert the situation and revitalize the analog process which is nowadays almost exclusively in the hands of the lovers of ancient photographic processes.
Digital photography is the future, but analog photographic techniques should be safeguarded, since they constitute now part of our common past.
Fotokemika factory stopped production a few years ago. Being part of the analog photo industry, after 65 years of work, it has left a priceless legacy behind.
A multiple direction of valorisation of Fotokemika heritage is fundamental: science research and appli- cation to the industry of photography, advertisement and design and technical immaterial knowledge.
The universal value of Fotokemika factory as cultural heritage in developing and spreading analog photography equipment and technique is undoubtedly known. Analog photography constitutes a fundamen- tal source of historical and social information by showing the changes in society and its visual commu- nication. Fotokemika, as one of many examples of analog photo industry, was part of that story.
4. REFERENCES
Fotokemika, list radnog kolektivnog poduzeća,‘Fotokemika‘ tvornice filmova i fotopapira (Fotokemika, magazine of working collective enterprises, ‘Fotokemika‘ factory of films and photo paper), broj 2, Zagreb, 1954-1955 Fotokemika, list radnog kolektivnog poduzeća,‘Fotokemika‘
tvornice filmova i fotopapira (Fotokemika, magazine of working collective enterprises, ‘Fotokemika‘ factory of films and photo paper), broj 2, Zagreb, 1995
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
N. Ilic thanks to FCT for the research grant HERITAS – PD/BI/142782/2018, CIDEHUS - UID/HIS/00057/2013 and HERCULES Laboratory also acknowledge FCT through the Strategic Projects funding POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007702 and UID/Multi/04449/2013, respectively.