FORTEPAN is a collection of 23482 amateur photos, which are browsable and downloadable on the website.Using the slider at the bottom of the page, you can start a slide show from any year of the past century, or, by clicking on the arrow, you can see the photos one by one. By clicking on the name of the original owner of the photograph, you may select that person’s collection. To read the background data (if there exists any), click on the letter I in the bottom right corner of the photo, or hit the I key. As FORTEPAN continuously expands, it welcomes donations of new private or amateur photos from the past. Pictures from the collection can be published without restrictions, for whatever purpose, on the condition that FORTEPAN is credited.

FORTEPAN is an archive that does not even exist. It's got its name from the Forte factory in Vác, Hungary: Forte was the widest spread and most popular negative film after World War II. The collection has a name but has not got offices or a bank account, neither any staff. We do not know if FORTEPAN includes 30 or 40 thousand photos as we never counted them because it was not important. We started to collect photos 20 years ago, without any concept, mesmerized and intrigued by the details in the pictures. Like we were trying to collect prints of our non-existing past. The most important field of collecting – in the physical sense of the world – was household junk put out on the streets of Budapest for removal. We must have walked several hundred (thousand?) kilometers, looking for negatives, Leica, 6x6, sheet films, glass negatives, slides, anything. Sometimes we purchased them too, and over time we had our established suppliers.
Actually, we never saw most of the pictures, we didn't have the money for blow-up didn't feel like scanning; we were only shifting back and forth the cardboard, aluminum, tin and plastic boxes full of the pictures. In the summer, 2009, however, we decided it was time to do something about them. I try to explain why. When someone wants to research the past century, or to illustrate a story, an article or a paper, he/she always uses press or advertisement or art photos. The heritages of amateur photographers are basically unknown. As if there were not millions of photos made of families, friends – sometimes of the author him/herself from a tripod or in the mirror; sometimes as a silhouette, figure with a hat on his head standing on the bank of a ditch, with the sun behind him. As if only public events took place in the 20th century: inaugurated, signed, sold, cheated, arrested, welcome, buried. In FORTEPAN you won't find photos of this kind. There is very little to be known about the photos here: most of the time the author, the people in the picture and even the place is unknown. On the back of some of the paper photos you will find some information like “in a historical football match, the third grade won against the fourth, scored Lindner, Imreh and Budai", or some personal notes, a date maybe.

As for the negatives, there is practically no information at all on them. As a consequence, the collection is not searchable, there are no tags, names or places – there might be sometime if someone designs a system and does the typing. FORTEPAN has a beginning and an ending, just like a novel. The first pictures are from the turn of the past century, from indeterminable years, whereas the last ones are from the months around the time of the regime change. All in all, what you can see here is the amateur records from about 90 years in a highly selective fashion. The only criterion of selection was that we wanted to include only good quality photographs. The product of our efforts is this personal and sentimental selection of 23482 photos. With more or less success, we put the photos in chronological order to provide some system. There are four options to browse the photos: by people (father, mother, the girl next door, the vicar), by place (Vérmező, the stone bridge in Jászdózsa), by objects (high stack, dusting stand, oleander), or see can all of them, i.e. the whole collection (this is the best choice!) With the slider at the bottom you may surf in time, while using the manual button you may even travel back in time – a unique experience! By clicking on the Download button, you may download any of the photos in a high resolution version, too. Users are encouraged to use, copy, send to friends, clip or paste the photos, which are free for they are not our property. However, we would welcome a note or a link if you happen to publish one or two of the photos because we would like to keep track of them. Also, we kindly ask you to use the FOTO: FORTEPAN sign for the photos you choose to publish. Some of you may find the minimalist tools and slightly outdated style of FORTEPAN appealing. You may even decide to give us some of your own photos or negatives. Please, do so! We welcome any donation, be it in analogue or digital format. As for the rest, we cannot guarantee anything.
ÁKOS SZEPESSY AND MIKLÓS TAMÁSI

FORTEPAN©2010 -- edit SZEPESSY ÁKOS+TAMÁSI MIKLÓS -- edit texts Borovi Dániel, Gál László, Simon Gyula -- support OSA Archivum -- web Guti Lajos -- translation Hegedűs Judit

photo Ábrahám Gábor, Acsán Zsolt, Alkotó5, Anderle Lajosné, Arina, Bakó Jenő, Bambi, Baráth Endre, Barna Ádám, Bartók István, Bejczy Sándor, Bekker Sándor, Benke Imréné, Berta József, Beták Róbert, Beyer Norbert, Bindorfer Ferenc, Bordács Zoltán, Bruckner János, Buzás Tamás, Capellaro Péter, Cholnoky Tamás, Csaba Zoltán, Cséfalvay Katalin, Csőke József, Csontos Péter, Del Medico Imre, Déri György, DKVK, Domonkos Éva, dr Matolay Tamás, Drimbe József, Elekes Attila, Éles Andrásné, ELTE Fűvészkert, Építész, Erky-Nagy Tibor, Fábián Sámuel, Farkas Jenő, Farnadi Zsolt, Fehérvári József, Fekete Bálint, Fekete László Gyula, Ferencvárosi Helytörténeti Gyűjtemény, Fődi Gábor, Fodor István, Forgó Andrea, Forisek Gábor, G.K., Gábor László, Gádoros Lajos, Gál József, Gál László, Gál Tamás, Galagonya, Ganóczy József, Gesztesi Albert, Geuduschek Tibor, GGAABBOO, Gyöngyi, Győr Város Levéltára, Hatala Zsolt, Házy Zsolt, Hegedűs Judit, Hegymegi Rita, Hirschler András, Horváth Lajos, iMRe, Indóház, Jankó Attila, Jankovszky György, Jurányi Attila, Kádas Tibor, Kasza Pál, Katona Zoltán, Kibédi Károly, Kiskos Vajk, Kőrös László, Kotnyek Antal, Kovács József, Kovács László Péter, Kovács Márton Ernő, Kovács-Palkó Gábor, Kővári Brigitta, Kováts Lajos, Kozma János, Kozma Krisztina, Krepsz Zoltán, Kurutz Márton, Lajtai László, Lakatos Mária, László János, Lencse Zoltán, Lengyel Tamás, Lengyel Zoltán, Library of Congress, Lipóth Lászlóné, Lőrincze Judit, Lovas Gábor, Lukács Zsolt, Majercsik Tamás, Major György, Mari Gabriella, Martin Djemil, Márton Gábor, Mészöly Leonóra, Miklós Tibor, Military Museum of Southern New England, Mohl József, MSPNE, Mussa Gymma Réka, Nagy Csilla, Nagy Ilona, Nagy József, Nagy László, Nagy Sándor, Nagy Zita, National Archives, Négyesi Pál, Németh Tamás, Nemzetes Ferenc, Nyárádi Gábor, Orosz Heléna, Pálfi Balázs, Pálinkás Zsolt, Papp István, Pesti Brúnó, Pesti Srác, Pesti Srác2, Pétek Edit, Péter Gábor, Pethő Tibor, Petróczy Dániel, PFFA/Höfler Tibor, PFFA/Urbach, Pikola Zsuzsa, Pohl Pálma, Reviczky György, Saly Noémi, Sándor Dávid, Scheidl Antal, Schoch Frigyes, Somlai Tibor, Super8 Alapítvány, Szabó Ferencné, Szabó János, Szalai Ferenc, Szalay Ákos, Szánthó Zoltán, Szávoszt-Vass Dániel, Székács András, Székely Márton, Szent-tamási Mihály, Szentpéteri András, Szepessy Tibor, SZF, Szilágyi Csaba, Sződy Maczó, TEHTUBE, Torjay Attila, Torjay Valter, Török Gyula, Tóth Ágnes, Tóth Károly dr., Tóth László, Tóth Luca Réka, Tripolszki Dalibor, Umann Kornél, Ungváry Krisztián, Urbán Tamás, Varga Dénes, Varga László, Várkonyi Benedek, Vass Károly, VÁTI Dokumentációs Központ, Vedres Ági, Vogl Elemér, Wallner József, Wein Sarolta, Weygand Tibor, Wirthmann Julianna, Zágonyi Zsuzsanna, Zainkó Géza, Zichy, Zombory György,

FORTEPAN is an online collection of 23482 amateur photos, which are browsable and downloadable in good quality. With the slider in AUTO position, you can start a slide show from any year of the past century. In MANUAL position, you can use the arrows in the upper right corner or the arrows on your keyboard to navigate back and forth in the collection to see the images one by one. By clicking on the name of the original owner of the photograph, you may select that person’s collection. To read the background data (if there exists any), click on the letter I in the bottom right corner of the photo, or hit the I key. FORTEPAN continuously expands, and welcomes donations of private or amateur photos from the past. Pictures from the collection can be published without restrictions, for whatever purpose, on the condition that FORTEPAN is credited. For further information click Fortepan in the menu.

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