“There is one solution, not to charge for anything”
Miklós Tamási, founder and editor of the Fortepan Online Archive
MúzeumCafé 50.
Established five years ago, Fortepan is an online archive of digitized photographs. MiklósTamási and ÁkosSzepessy have been collecting pictorial documents about Hungary which fill a gap. Lost moments, events and buildings are presented in private photos. The photos of family albums, as well as those kept in large storerooms, illuminate the 20th century. In recent times the archive has received numerous donations and family bequests. Although Fortepan has few permanent co-workers, bloggers give much help in identifying individual pictures. They started to collect photos at the end of the 1980s. It was a time when there was a growing interest in personal history. The collection initially began with searches of junk, which people had assembled for removal. Today it includes more than 50,000 digitized photos, and is constantly growing. Several hundred people have contacted the founders. They correspond with them, visit them and sort through items with them. The functioning and expansion of Fortepan is driven by a group of about ten people and involves a great deal of work. For them, filling gaps is not in itself the aim. Nor is it to satisfy every request. At the same time, the work of the so-called forums is tremendous. It would be a mistake not to use the knowledge found there. It’s also important to know what people using the website are looking for. In the main, it is locations, individuals and objects – rarely events. The material is very Budapest-centred, as in the past photography was an urban hobby and the majority of amateur photographers lived in the capital. Public collections request a fee for reproduction. The founders believe that there is no other way than to create the conditions for free use. And for this there is one solution – not to charge for anything.