Hidden Visual Treasures – Photographs from the 19th and 20th Centuries in the ELTE University Library

Abstract

The theoretical part of the text analyses the relation between the logocentric culture and the image culture in the context of cultural history and the theory of photography in order to explain why the visual documents, photographic materials of the libraries are hidden mostly uncatalogued. There are presented the difficulties of the descriptions, interpretations of photos, and the fact that not only the libraries are behindhand in describing photos, but this delay is possibly the consequence of the structural default, condition of our culture. In the paper a few photos of the University Library are presented, among others the photos of Roger Fenton, an Orientalizing album, an album from the World War I. and a few photos of the library from the 19th and early 20th century.