Jan Brunon Bułhak (1876–1950) was an early 20th century photographer in Poland and present-day Belarus and Lithuania. A published theoretician and philosopher of photography, he was an exponent of pictorialism. He is best known for his landscapes and photographs of various places, especially the city of Vilnius (then in Poland, now in Lithuania). He was the founder of the Wilno Photoclub and Polish Photoclub, the predecessors of the modern Union of Polish Art Photographers (ZPAF), of which he was an honorary office-holder. He is also known as an ethnographer and folklorist.
Biography
Jan Bułhak was born on October 6, 1876, in Ostaszyn (), near Navahrudak (), Russian Empire (now Belarus). His parents were Walery Antoni Stanisław Bułhak of Syrokomla and Józefa née Haciska of Roch, both local landowners in Ostaszyn. In the village of Worończa () near Navahrudak, not far from St. Ann's Roman Catholic church (), there are four graves of Jan Bułhak's ancestors.
In 1888, Jan entered a gymnasium (a pre-Revolution secondary public school of the Russian Empire) in Wilno (present-day Vilnius), finishing it in 1897. From 1897 to 1899, he studied literature, history and philosophy at Jagiellonian University, Kraków, but did not graduate because of lack of money. Returning home, he lived in the village of Peresieka () near Minsk, where he inherited a manor after his great-uncle's death. From there, Bułhak sent news stories to Wilno newspapers. In 1901, he married a cousin, Hanna Haciska. After his father's death, he sold the manor and bought a mansion from the Radziwiłłs in Belitsa, near Minsk. On April 27, 1906, the couple had a son, Janusz Bułhak, who would become a composer and a photographer.
Photography
Beginning
Jan Bułhak grew interested in photography quite by chance in 1905, when his wife was given a camera. The same year, he took his first pictures: portraits, landscapes, environs. In the beginning, he was advised by Bolesław Ignacy Domeyko, a Navahrudak photographer, who helped him in the basics of photography.
In 1908, he created a darkroom of his own in Peresieka. That December, he made his debut and won the main award at a photo competition run by Życie Ilustrowane ("Illustrated Life"), a weekly supplement to Kurier Litewski ("Lithuanian Courier").
First successes
In 1910, Jan Bułhak participated for the first time in the World Photo Exhibition in Brussels. He corresponded with the Paris Photoclub and the French photographers Emil J. Constant Puyo, Robert de la Sizeranne, and Léonard Misonne. Two issues of the Berlin Photographische Mitteilungen ("Photographic News") in 1910 contained his pictures.Bułhak sent his pictures and news stories to the Warsaw magazine Ziemia ("Earth") as well as to the Polish Local Lore society. He published many translations and articles in Polish magazines and inculcated the aesthetics of Pictorialism in the minds of his readers.
From November 1910, Bułhak regularly contributed his writings on photography to the monthly Fotograf Warszawski ("Warsaw Photographer"). He also soon began contributing to Tygodnik Wileński ("Vilnius Weekly") (up to 1939), and Deutscher Almanach ("German Almanac").
In 1911, Bułhak organized a photo-exhibition in Minsk. He participated in a photo exhibition in Ciechocinek, Poland; and received an honorary diploma in the category of artistic portraits at a contest in Antwerp.
Professional work
Fotographika really sticks out of the photo books from the rest due to the solid, print form, manifested not too much in the pictorial and impressionist styles of photography art, but in layouts of books. In Fotographika, Bulhak shows that he cares and draws attention through the definition of photographic reproductions. Fotographika was pioneering for the conscious consideration of form and quality of photo publications in Poland. The book shows Jan Bulhak as a person that a father figure to generations of amazing photography beginners looking to practice and aspired the called artists, as well as offering interesting contribution to reflection on the image of the artists.Jan Bulhak could also be considered as a prominent producer when it came to the concept of self-promotion and entrepreneurial organization of a photographer's activity.
Acquaintance with Ferdynand Ruszczyc
It was Bułhak's publication in Fotograf Warszawski in 1910 that drew the attention of Ferdynand Ruszczyc, a Polish painter, printmaker, and a professor at the Fine Arts Department of the Stefan Batory University (now Vilnius University); and it was Ruszczyc who helped Bułhak move to Vilnius.