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The Manaki brothers (Yanaki 1879-1960, and Milton 1882-1964) entered Macedonian cultural history as the greatest photographers in Macedonia and perhaps amongst the world during the pre-war yerars.
More than 17,300 photographs taken in more than 120 different places in the Balkans have so far been identified. This collection ranging with photograps first taken in Yanina in 1898 to the last, taken in the modern Republic of Macedonia in 1963, chronicle a turbulent period in Macedonian history, and is a rich field of research, with many of its treasures still to be discovered.
In the period 1898 to 1904, the Manakis opened a photographic studio in Yanina. By 1906, they had won the Gold Medal at the Bucharest Photographic exhibition and soon after became Court photographers.
In 1905, they moved their business to Bitola which was then one of the most dynamic and cultural cities in the Balkans. Their unique skills and artistry attracted many outastanding Balkan personalities icluding Prince Mehmed, later to become the sultan of Turkey, King Carol I of Romania, many of the legendary and famous fighters of the Macedonian revolutionary units of the Ilinden Uprising including the inspirational Dame Gruev; Niyazi Bey, the principlal mastemind of the Young Turk Revolution and many others.
The Manaki studio itsekf became an institution which conferred social status. Their enormous success equipped them with instant access to the rest of Europe's cities including Vienna, Paris, London and others. By 1907 the brothers brought back from London the 300th. Biscope cine-camera which marked the birth of film-making in Macedonia only 12 years after the invention of film-making by the Lumiere brothers.
Armedand with the cine-camera and their cameres, the brothers filmed some of the worlds most sensational occurrences. They captured the dramatic and cultural impact of the Asian influance especially the Turkish occupation of Macedonia. They showed the tenseness and verocity of two revolutions and two major wars: the Ilinden Uprising of 1903 for Macedonian national and social liberation, and the Young Turk Revolution of 1908; the Balkan wars of 1912-12, and the First World War of 1914-18.
As a consequence of their enthusiasm and dedication to their work, the world was allowed an electrifying armchair view of the Turkish military reprisals against Macedonians after the failure of the Ilinden Uprising, and the enthusiasm with which its ideas were met by the masses.
The Manaki brothers also filmed perhaps the greatest tragedy in Macedonian history, the partiotion of Macedonia among Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Albania in the Balkan Wars.
Ironically, it was the manner in which the brothers documented the traditional Macedonian customs, rites, and everyday lift that really set the brothers work on a unique level. They filmed villagers, street cleaners, soldiers, mutineers, weddings, processions, and the festivities associated with the celebration of the Macedonian holidays.
This was in direct contrast to the stiffness and artificiality of the photographers of the rich family portraits that were so common in that period. It was this willingness to record the very fine fabric of Macedonian people that gave the world an awarness of the Macedonian people's uniqueness and rich culture.
Without the work of the Manaki brothers, the propaganda spread by a few of the world's very extremist countries would have been made all the more easier than it is today. In effect, the Manaki brothers, by having captured the Macedonian economic and cultural life, unintentionally rose to become promoters of the Macedonian identity.
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