#Exhibit of the Month

The main parts of the camera include the body, bellows, lens, and viewfinder system. The body consists of two lacquered walnut wood frames, joined by a folding black textile bellows that allows the necessary extension for focusing. On the front panel is the Agfa anastigmat lens, mounted in a Compur-type shutter produced by F. Deckel in Munich. It features a foldable "brilliant" viewfinder for both portrait and landscape orientation. It uses glass photographic plates coated with a photographic emulsion, mounted in walnut wood holders, with a frame size of 9x12 cm.
The walnut wood model, considered the flagship "Agfa Isolar Luxus," was designed by the A.H. Rietzschel factory in Munich, acquired by AGFA in 1925, which continued producing this type of camera under its own name until the late 1920s.
The piece was restored by Mihail Culașco, Restoration Department of NMHM.
Brief History of the Camera
The history of the camera spans 200 years, evolving from the camera obscura to today's digital devices. Key milestones include: the first permanent photograph in 1826 by French physicist Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, using a wooden box and a plate coated with bitumen of Judea; the invention of the first photographic process - daguerreotype - in 1839 by Frenchman Louis Daguerre, marking the official birth of photography; the invention of calotype, based on the negative/positive principle, by British physicist and chemist Fox Talbot; the invention of wet collodion plates by Englishman Frederick Scott Archer and dry glass plates by Richard Leach Maddox and John Huds Bennet; the introduction of flexible roll film and the launch of the first Kodak camera by American inventor George Eastman; the release of the first 35 mm film camera by German company "Leica"; the launch of the first instant camera "Polaroid," invented by American Edwin Land. Finally, starting in 1975, this path led to the digital photography revolution. Each successive step made cameras smaller and faster, significantly improving image quality.
The first photographic studio in Chișinău was opened in 1854 by Eduard Glewski, and before World War I, there were already about 100 photography studios in Bessarabia.
The collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova includes over 30 cameras, made in Austria, Germany, France, USSR, Japan, and China, dating from the late 19th century to the 2000s. Among them are folding bellows cameras, BOX-type cameras, single-lens reflex (SLR) and twin-lens reflex (TLR) cameras, as well as digital (DSLR) cameras.

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Exhibitions

„Icons from private collections from Chișinău”

July 21, 2016 - February 19, 2017

On July 21, 2016, the National Museum of History of Moldova and the International Club of Collectors from Moldova opened the exhibition „Icons from private collections from Chișinău", which will be on display until December 31, 2016.

This is a new practice for Moldovan collectors to collaborate with public institutions in order to display to a larger public the antiques they have collected over the years. Besides the tendency to collect objects of different categories, including ritual artifacts, the merit of collectors, as well as public institutions, is the safeguard and preservation of heritage assets. In case of icons, their collection and conservation in private collections was perhaps the most appropriate way to salvage them from imminent danger of total disappearance in certain historical periods.

The exhibition has on display 127 icons painted on wood, oil and tempera, dated with the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Most exhibited icons are of Russian origin, but there are also some examples created in Bessarabia.
The exhibition is divided into several distinct sections and presents a grouping of religious icons of the Mother of God, of the Saviour and St. Nicholas. The public will familiarize with the most representative Mariological icon types: Hodighitria, Eleusa, Oranta, Aghiosoritissa. Among displayed icons with Christological theme are: Jesus Christ Pantocrator, Christ the High Priest, the Holy Veil, the Icon of the Resurrection etc. A remarkable collection of icons with the image of St. Nicholas will be displayed, protection icons, icons with several registers and icons dedicated to holy martyrs and pious saints, such as icons with the image of St. John the Baptist, Saints Samon, Gurie and Aviv, St. Evdokia, St. Fotinia, St. Catherine, St. Tatiana etc.

All icons in the exhibition are displayed the first time to the visiting public, which makes the exhibition extremely valuable.

Exhibition „Icons from private collections from Chișinău”