ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author analyse the emergence of the concept of the Polish cultural patrimony and the rise of its photographic definitions. He presents the first survey initiatives and projects of their kind in the framework of the entangled political and cultural situation of the stateless nation that was subjected to the rule of three empires. Karol Beyer recognized as the pioneer of Polish photography and as an influential Polish antiquarian is the guiding thread of the case studies. The context of Beyer's professional activity was both local and imperial. As with most of his contemporaries, his daguerreotype and photographic studio income came mainly from portraiture. The genre of types in the 1870s generated a vivid interest among Polish photographers and a growing demand on the part of local amateurs and collectors. The 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition contained a Polish anthropological section in its exhibition of ancient art.