Benedict Moritz Baer, one of Bucharest’s first photographers

Considered to be basically Romanias first art photographer and one of the best of his time, Carol Popp de Szathmári was a precursor to several photographers passionate about Romanias both landscapes and cityscapes, especially those of Bucharest.

Christine Leșcu, 21.03.2015, 14:14

Considered to be basically Romania’s first art photographer and one of the best of his time, Carol Popp de Szathmári was a precursor to several photographers passionate about Romania’s both landscapes and cityscapes, especially those of Bucharest. One of these first professionals who followed Szathmari was his brother-in-law, Franz Duschek, who also became a photographer at the court of king Charles I of Romania. Another of his followers, whose portrait we draw today, is Benedict Moritz Baer. He was born in Regensburg, Bavaria, in 1811, but died in the Romanian capital Bucharest, in 1887. He came to Bucharest in the summer of 1861 after an adventurous life that had at one time brought him to the US. We talked about him with Emanuel Badescu, a librarian with the Romanian Academy.

Emanuel Badescu: “The archives in Timisoara still have photos made by MB Baer in Mehadia and Herculane spa. I believe he came to find a job and settle down. He came in the summer of 1861, as can be seen in the advertisements published in Liberal daily ‘Romanul’ published by C.A. Rosetti. His workshop was in Bucharest at the Mueller House on Victory Road. It was much more difficult at the time to settle down. You had to be married to a national or to have done something remarkable on the territory of the Romanian principalities so that the ruler may call on Parliament to grant you citizenship. I don’t think Baer ever got that opportunity, as in 1865, four years after his coming to Bucharest, he got married to Louise Bieltz, the daughter of a major lithographer from Sibiu, central Romania. They had five children.”

He set up his workshop at the first floor of a building on Victory Road. This allowed the photographer to observe the city and take snapshots of it. But he didn’t use only that location, his apartment, as he used to take photos from downtown Bucharest.

Emanuel Badescu: “His workshop on Victory Road, or the Mogosaiei Bridge as it was called until 1878, gave him the chance of seeing the city from above and capture its transition from a ‘huge village’, as it was called back in 1860, to a large city. At that time many traders used to come to Bucharest to improve their business here. Some of them were Jews from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, others were Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Szeklars. They had some money and started building houses in Bucharest in keeping with Western standards, and Bucharest started looking more like a city. All this process was unfolding under the curious eyes of M.B. Baer.”

Unfortunately, the Romanian Academy only has pictures of Bucharest from 1869. These photos are of great consequence, as they provide information about the development of the city of Bucharest.

Emanuel Badescu: “We have a remarkable image with the Radu-Voda Monastery, before the destruction of its outer walls. There are also two photos with the St. Demeter of the Oath Church and St. Catherine Church before restoration works — as the two buildings had passed through earthquakes and fires. Baer didn’t take photos of hills or plains, as did Szathmary, Duschek or Raiser, but took photos of various places around the city.”

Benedict Moritz Baer’s legacy is not limited to photos of the Bucharest of his time. Besides his workshop on Victory Road, he also owned a lithography workshop, which he had inherited from his father-in-law. He was a lithographer and also a pressman, a craft he handed down to his son Albert. The ‘Luceafarul’ printing house can be still seen today, standing close to the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Corporation.