The History of European Photography 1900 – 1938 (Vol. 1) is the first volume of a three-volume encyclopedia on the history of European Photography of the 20th Century. On more than 800 illustrated pages, over 45 experts discuss their research on photography in 34 countries. So far, it is the most complex overview of European photography – an accomplishment that didn’t come easy. In his lecture, Vaclav Macek, the editor of the volume, discusses a multitude of issues that arose during the compilation of the publication.

He touches upon the relationship between the arts and the socio-political situation of the regions and states. He also elaborates on the floating nature of the motifs in European photography culture. He studies photography as part of the arts, as well as part of the visual culture. And, also, he expounds on what the cognate European photography means at all.
Studying film and theater history at the Charles University in Prague, Vaclav Macek worked as a curator of the photography collection at the Slovak National Gallery between 1991 and 1992 following an internship at the Institute of the Art history of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Since 2005, he is the director of the Central European House of Photography. He is the head of an international research project titled History of European Photography in the 20th century. He also acts as the Director of the Month of Photography in Bratislava. His publication list includes, among others, the following works: Elo Havetta (1990), The history of Slovak non-fiction cinema (1992), Dušan Hanák (1996), Slovak photography in the 60’s (1990), Slovak imaginative
photography 1982 – 1997, Slovak photography 1925 – 2000 /with Aurel Hrabusicky/, Stefan Uher (2002), Jan Kadar (2008).

Photo credit: flickr.com

Source: Hungarian House of Photography – Mai Manó House 
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