Music, dance, custom

through the lens of an English photographer

Archive records from the Galloway Collection of the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania

William Albert Dennis Galloway, a.k.a. Denis Galloway, was born on 5 March 1878 in Cardiff (Wales). Previously an engineer and navy officer, Galloway joined the Slade School of Fine Arts in London at the age of 26.

Settling down in Westkapelle (the Netherlands), Galloway joined Jan Tooroop's international artist group in Domburg. He probably was invited to Romania by his fellow painters, the Hungarian Móricz Góth, from Negreşti-Oaş (Romania) and his wife Ada Löwith.

With minor interruptions (including visits to England, the Netherlands, Germany and Poland), Galloway spent the years between 1926 and 1950 in Romania. In 1927 to 1929, he worked for the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania, spending 5 or 6 months in different Transylvanian ethnographic areas respectively. He painted aquarelles about traditional rural holidays, paying special attention to the fine details of traditional folk costumes. He collected objects and took photos in the Kalotaszeg region, in Pădureni, Haţeg and in the Banat region. Between 1930 and 1938, Galloway's connection to the Museum loosened, but there is still a large number of negatives left form that period, chiefly made in Năsăud county, in Ţara Bârsei, Oaş and Bucovina regions. On 25 May 1950, Galloway contacted the Museum for the last time in order to hand over his negatives, and at the age of 72, he went back to England. In 1953, he became a member of the Folklore Society. Denis Galloway died in 1957.

The Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania owns about 450 of Galloway's negatives from different European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic), 647 negatives made in Romania, and 27 autochrome glass plaques.

Galloway took photos with a Goertz camera on of 8x11, 9x12 and later on 13x18 cm glass plaques. His pictures are generally characterized by a harmony of composition and aesthetics. Beside the clear aesthetic tendency and the intention to make a balanced composition, Galloway also aimed to produce a faithful documentation of even the finest details.

Galloway divided his photos into three groups: pictures taken under the direction of the ethnographic professor Romulus Vuia, pictures based on his own ideas, and pictures made for the village people, his models.

The pictures of the first category include photos with a clear "ethnographic importance", registering information related to dwelling, household, specific activities, clothes and customs. Taken in both geographically and ethnically diverse communities (Romanian, Hungarian, Saxon, Slavic) with distinctive historical statuses (e.g. formerly serving as border regions), Galloway's photos kept a colorful and detailed image of traditional Transylvanian rural life in the years 1920-1930.

The common element of the second group of pictures is aesthesis. While the photos of the first category focused on information, these landscapes and snapshots with their blurred characters immortalize less public though fabulous aesthetic moments.

The pictures of the last category are the most numerous. Here Galloway's negatives become a means of bonding, a way of strengthening his position within the community.