Introducing the Jelenarchívum – The Archive of the Present by the Museum of Ethnography

The mission of the Jelenarchívum is to create a collection of contemporary private photographs with personal stories, starting from 1990 until the present. The archive is conceived as a social project and research, an extended continuation of the widely known and popular Fortepan collection.

During the development of the concept, our team focused on the contemporary research methods of the MaDok-programme, and the web interface was developed after studying international examples and good practices. The ongoing project is a community collection campaign covering the entire Hungarian language area, continuously developing and expanding its tools, methods, and thematic campaigns. The significance of the archive is that it also provides a space for the exploration of contemporary photographs and stories, as there has not been much scientific research on private photographs in Hungary since the advent of digital photography.

While the archive focuses on personal photos and stories from the 1990s Hungary, we welcome contributions, comments, and recommendations from all.