Oldal 358 [358]
356
Eda Kalmre
Anyone leafing through a similar family album or photo collection could mentally
compose a unigue pictorial narrative by arranging photos of objects taken at dif¬
ferent times.
In general, photographs of Tartu have played an important role in preserving
local memories. The lively and detailed description of the town provided by my
informants relied in part on their personal photo collections. After a few decades
of Soviet rule, photographs of pre- and post-war Tartu, particularly those taken by
photographer Eduard Selleke (1895-1976), and similar ones taken later by Ilja
Pähn (1915-2006), Karl Hintzer (1895-1967), and Elmar Kald (1898-1969), etc.
became a special point of interest among many local residents who were interested
in collecting such material. During the Soviet period, these photos were exchanged
among collectors at the Tartu Philately Club and elsewhere.
During the course of my research I came to know the phenomenal extent of
photographer Eduard Selleke’s work in taking documentary photos and distributing
them during the Soviet period. Selleke was a professional photographer. During
Estonia’s first independence in the early twentieth century he had been a scientific
photographer at Tartu University and fulfilled multifaceted photography-related
requests. He worked on reproductions of old photos, documentary photography,
pictures of WWI and the Estonian Liberation War (Fig. 153). However, he became
nationally renowned for his photos of the city of Tartu, both pre- and post-war.
During Soviet period he continued working as a photographer focusing mainly
on portraits, studio, and document photos. Although he was under constant
KGB surveillance, and also had to perform some jobs to their specifications,
working in an artistic team (artell) allowed some independence and even business
opportunities during the Soviet period. Practically until his death he and his wife
visited companies in Tartu, offering his photos for sale. One could also order photos
from him directly. In fact, he had acquired the works of many photographers who
had fled to the west during the war (including Karl Hintzer), which he also sold
(under his own name). Consequently, Selleke is today credited for pictures that
he did not take. In the museums and archives of Tartu the ratio of originals and
copies of these photos is still unresolved. As a side remark, one of my informants,
Kalju Leib, the owner of a large private photo collection focusing on the history of
housing in Tartu, had had personal contacts with Eduard Selleke, and reminisced
that Selleke was a good story teller, often accompanying the transaction, ice. selling
of a historical photograph, with a story concerning the pictured object. This
provided prompt conjoining of memories to visual pictures.
Another interesting although more marginal means of bringing post-war for¬
bidden photos of Tartu to public circulation—to homes, in front of the viewers—
was if the photo followed an artistic and heroic format of depiction (for example if
the image represented restoration). Graphic artist Richard Kaljo, for example, drew
a series of graphic works of Tartu in war ruins in the 1950s. Several of the graphic