Museums of photography are still rare in the world, though their number has increased in the last ten years. But what do these museums of photography show ? Not only the photograph itself, but more especially its technical evolution and that of the instruments with which it was taken – the photographic instruments. Who would think of exhibiting at the same level the painter’s brush, paints and oils with the product of these utensils ? Nor we are shown the object and the instrument of production in the applied arts. This is however what happens for photography in most instances. The instrument takes on considerable importance and the photograph is still considered much more as the result of a technique and the camera than as the product of mind, thought and vision. It is here forgotten that photography is above all the bearer of a message, a new language and mode of expression for man.

curator in the photographic department of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. [cited in: “Creative Camera International Year Book 1976”, Coo Press, London, 1975, p. 163]

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