18-12-2022
Le Journal des Voyages - February 3rd, 1927
Look what I found!!
A while ago I stumbled upon a photo that I immediately recognized as one from Kurt Hielscher. It was the one on page 111 of his Yugoslavia album from 1926 with the two girls wearing traditional costumes on the balcony of the Vijećnica in Sarajevo . The subscript under the photo: "Extrait du Journal des Voyages (Libraire Larousse)".
When I recently made my post about Sarajevo, I saw the photo again,
because I downloaded it on my laptopand scrolled around it. Now, I started an internet search, something that I somehow
forgot to do when I stumbled upon the photo. The magazine was easy to find on the internet,
but I could not find the edition with the photo in it. There were no hits with the name Kurt Hielscher, but
I did find out that in nearby Tilburg, coincidentally, there was a second hand bookstore, "De Refter" that had volumes with all editions from the years 1926-1928. Since Kurt Hielscher's
"Jugoslavien" edition was published in 1926, I could be lucky.
The next weekend I went to De Refter in Tilburg.
After half an hour of leaving through the Journals, my eye was caught by an article about Serbia and I thought "interesting" but there were no photos from Kurt Hielscher in it so I continued browsing. Then I found a second article about Serbia and now also about Bosnia and Herzegovina. A few moments later I was pleasantly surprised by the cover of the February 3rd edition of the Journal in the volume from the first half year of 1927. I recognized Kurt Hielscher's photo immediately though it was colorized.
Turns out there are four articles on twelve pages by the hand of Florent Fels and a cover, with Kurt Hielscher's photo on it from page 148 of his 1926 Yugoslavia photoalbum. Fels used 25 photos in his articles out of which I recognize six being made by Kurt Hielscher. This raises the question whether one of the other photos also might be made by him, but did not make it to his photo album? That would be news! Unfortunately, Fels did not note the names of the photographers. Actually, I don't think that one of the photos I did not recognize is Kurt Hielscher's, because I do not recognize his style.
My French is not very good, but I tried to read all four articles. In my opinion, the articles illustrate a nice, not so olitical sketch of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from a French perspective in that era. It is more about culture, nature and architecture than politics, just like most todays travel guides, but with a sense of adventure.
The photo from page 111. When I dowloaded it, I thought it was a postcard. Months later I realized the photo was from an old magazine, Le Journal des Voyages.
"Paysans Serbs", "Le Journal des Voyages", No 90, 3rd of February 1927.
"Jugoslavien", Kurt Hielscher, 1926, page 148.
Here the four articles from Ferdinand Fels:
Both photos on the second age are from Kurt Hielscher. It is the Jewish Cemetary on page 107 and the girls in traditional costumes on page 110 in Sarajevo. On the third age of the article we find a photo of Dioclethian's palace in Split, also to be found on page 46 in Kurt Hielscher's photoalbum. And on page 4 of the article we find a photo from Trogir and Dubrovnik, but I only recognize the one from Dubrovnik as Kurt Hielscher's from page 54. Though Kurt Hielscher also made plenty of photos from Trogir, I do not recognize this one from Kamerlengo Castle as his.
Second photo on the first page is from Kurt Hielscher. It is the Onofrio Fountain in Dubrovnik on page 67. The first photo on the first page is also from Dubrovnik, from the portal of the Rector's Palace to be more exact and Kurt Hielscher made a photo here too, but I do not recognize this one as one of his.
Cover of the collection of Journals from the first half of 1927.
Second hand book- and antiquestore De Refter in Tilburg on the 5th of November when I bought a compilation with the first half year of editions of Le Journal des Voyages from 1927 for only 10 euros.
