Andor Kraszna-Krausz (12 January 1904 – 24 December 1989), born Andor Krausz,Deac Rossell, "Kraszna-Krausz, Andor", in John Hannavy (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography'', vol. 1 (Routledge: 2008), pp. 806-8. was a Hungarian and British publisher and writer of photographic literature; he founded

Focal Press Focal Press is a publisher of creative and applied media books and it is an imprint of Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Company history The firm was founded in London in 1938 by Andor Kraszna-Krausz, a Hungarian photographer who migrated to England ...

in 1938.

Career

Andor Krausz was born on 12 January 1904 in

Szombathely Szombathely (; german: Steinamanger, ; see also other alternative names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas county in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by t ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, to Adolf Krausz and Iren Krausz (''née'' Rosenberge). After studying at the local Roman Catholic high school, he enrolled in the

Technical Institute An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

in 1922 and a year later moved to the School of Photography and Cinematography. He edited the journal ''Filmtechnik: Filmkunst. Zeitschrift für alle künstlerischen, technischen und wirtschaftlichen Fragen des Filmwesens'' (Verlag Wilhelm Knapp) after 1926, and lived in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

until 1937, when he migrated to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. As a student, he had become interested in publishing, but turned his hand to writing; by the late 1930s, he was an experienced writer on photography. After arriving in the United Kingdom, he began his own publishing house,

, which published its first books in 1938; one of those, W. D. Emanuel and F. L. Dash's ''The All-in-One Camera Book'', would be reprinted in 81 editions. Thus began a series of books about the topic; he went on to publish 1,200 books on photography, cinematography and broadcasting, which sold 50 million copies."Andor Kraszna-Krausz" ''The Times'', 1 January 1990, p. 12. Focal Press thereby "became world renown din the field". By the early 1940s, it also began publishing large-format picture books of nineteenth-century photography (such as ''Gallery of Immortal Portraits'' in 1940 and ''Victorian Photography'' in 1942), which Deac Rossell has argued "had a decisive impact on the revival of interest in nineteenth century photography"; a modernist, Kraszna-Krausz's belief in democratic values led him to praise Victorian photographers' amateur inventiveness and exploration of photography. Across his career, Kraszna-Krausz also developed a reputation for predicting technological change in photography, with ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' calling him a "prophet of the camera arts". His works were especially popular in Germany, where he won the

German Society for Photography German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

's Culture Award in 1979. In the United Kingdom, he received an honorary

DLitt Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

from the

University of Bradford The University of Bradford is a Public university, public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be creat ...

. In 1982, he established the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation, which continues to make annual awards to people whose books have made "original and lasting educational, professional, historical and cultural contributions to the field"."About"
''The Kraszna-Krausz Foundation''. Retrieved 26 September 2018. He died on 24 December 1989.

References

External link

Focal Press (Kraszna-Krausz)
a
Database – Jewish Publishers of German Literature in Exile, 1933-1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kraszna-Krausz, Andor 1904 births 1989 deaths Hungarian publishers (people) Hungarian emigrants to the United Kingdom Budapest University alumni British publishers (people) Technical University of Munich alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Books of photographs