Men of substance

I have selected the subject of personalities for today's post. Here are two great personalities related with the field of Geology and Photography.The first stamp issued by Czech Reublic on 18 June 2008 depicts the great czech Geologist Ferdinand Stolička and the other set is on Photography issued by Poland on 29 February 2008. On one of the stamps issued by Poland is pictured 'Father of Polish Photography' Karol Beyer. The all four stamps of the set depict the reproductions of his photographs from the National Museum in Warsaw collection. The FDCs for these issues are so beautiful in black & white and giving a classic look of great art of photography. The cancellation is in the form of very simple antique camera. What an idea ? Superb ! I have noticed that the design of the stamps issued by Poland are always excellent having a great sense of art. I must appreciate the great stamp designers of Poland who make such magnificent stamp designs. In my earlier post I appreciated designs of Polish Stamps issued on Europa Theme 'Letter writing' & Meterological Phenomenon. I am sure this post will be liked by philatelists and those interested in photography.

Date of Issue : 18 June 2008

Ferdinand Stolička
Ferdinand Stolička (1838–1874) The Czech geologist, paleontologist and natural scientist of a world significance F. Stolička graduated in geology from the Faculty of Arts in Vienna. He did mapping in the Eastern Alps, in Hungary and Dalmatia. As a paleontologist of the Indian Geological Institute he researched mainly the Himalaya and the Karakoram. He set for his first journey to the Himalaya in 1864. During the four-month expedition he created geological maps of extensive areas of the mountains; in particular, he made it an exact fact that the core of the Himalaya consists of gneiss layers covered with high primary and secondary sediments. He contributed also to other disciplines, mainly to ornithology. On his return from the third expedition to the Himalaya he died, probably of high mountain disease. The extent of Stolička's scientific work is admirable

On the occasion of the 190th anniversary of Karol Beyer's birth Poland has issued 4 stamps with reproductions of his photographs from the National Museum in Warsaw collection. The stamps present the Author's self-portrait (1858), portraits of peasants from Wilanów (1866), the Holy Cross church in Warsaw (1858) and Russian army at the Castle Square in Warsaw (1861).

Date of Issue: 29 February 2008

Karol Beyer
Karol Beyer (1818-1877) was the "father of Polish photography". As a young man he studied painting and worked in the artistic cast factory. In 1844 he left to Paris to learn there the daguerrotype technology. Soon he had opened his own workshop in Warsaw, producing the daguerrotype portraits, which after a few years transformed into a real photo atelier. At the peak of his career Beyer employed as many as 30 photographers, some of them being talented artists. In this way he had educated many renowned professional photographers. The photography in Beyer's atelier was recognized as an art, what had been attested by numerous awards won at the international exhibitions, but also as a mean of documentation. One of Beyer's partners had won great popularity for his posthumous portraits of the victims of 1861 patriotic manifestation and the photographs from the period of the January Uprising. For his patriotic engagement Beyer had been sentenced for two year's banishment in the remote region of Russia.Beyer participated also in establishing the "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" ( "Illustrated Weekly") magazine and developed for it his own technology of transferring the photographs (by mediation of the negative) onto the wooden printing blocks; he worked on the modern collotype technology as well. He was much interested in numismatics and archaeology. At the age of 54 however he retired from photography.

The daguerrotypy

The photography's "elder sister" consists in producing pictures on the silver-coated plates, covered with a photosensitive material. Its name comes from its inventor, Louis Daguerre. This technology had been in use for some 10 years only and required high precision as well as technical and chemical skills. Since its beginnings it proved also to be dangerous for health and life for the use of mercury vapours in developing process. Unlike photographs, the daguerrotypes could not be reproduced.

The early photography

Officially the photography was born on 1839. The glass negatives could be copied on specially prepared paper. The collodion process so called "wet plate", in use universally in the 2nd half of the 19th century, required from the photographer to carry with him a kind of a portable dark room in order to avoid drying out the photosensitive material. As the photos were not yet blown up, and the copies were made by direct contact, it was necessary to use cameras of different sizes. The portraits were made most frequently in the so called visiting (6.5x10 cm) and cabinet (10x15 cm) sizes. The static appearance of early photographs is due mainly to their long exposure times - up to even almost twenty minutes.

The design of FDC envelopes

The accompanying 4 FDC envelopes feature the photos of the "Tygodnik Ilustrowany" magazine staff (1864), a pair of peasants from Wilanów (1866), the Kierbedź bridge under construction (May 22, 1861) and the monument of the king Jan III Sobieski (1858). A picture of the bridge is, in a sense, one of the first report's photos, as Beyer documented that enterprise over all the time of its realization (1859-1864). The special postmark is in a form of the simple photo camera.