Published: September 16, 2017

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Film Museum in Girona

Photos of Girona's Film Museum and its Tomàs Mallol collection.

The ”Museu del Cinema” in Girona takes you on a journey through various milestones in the development of cinema, from the pre-cinema era, and includes an extensive collection of more than 8 thousand pieces, encompassing historic devices and accessories; hundreds of movies, books and magazines; as well as thousands of documents, which are available at the museum’s library.

Goldmann Herlango photographic camera from the 19th century

OSSA - Supersond Film projector

Projector used at the Albéniz Cinema-Theater in Girona between 1930 and 1970.

Stereoscopic photography viewers

On the left, a "magic" stereoscope by Negretti and Zambra from the second half of the 19th century. On the right, you can see a viewer by American Lens from 1874.

Stereoscopic photography camera of 1860-1900

This camera allowed to take two pictures with a slightly different angle, to simulate the three-dimensional visual effect when observed using the stereoscopic viewers shown in the previous image.

Studio photographic camera

This is a model manufactured by Eugène Derogy’s company, which the museum has dated between 1860 and 1900. This company specialized in optic devices and use to be located next to the Seine, in the Île de la Cité, Paris, near the Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Travel photography camera from 1880-1900

Lithophane in a magic lantern

German porcelain lithophane from the 19th century

On the left photo you can see the reliefs on the porcelain piece illuminated with a top front light source. On the right, when lighting the piece against the light, you can appreciate the intended visual effect, in which the thinner areas of the porcelain are seen lighter, and the thicker ones are darker, creating an image with various gradients.

Film camera from 1946

Eclair camera, Cameflex standard model.

Movie posters featuring Errol Flynn and Maureen O'Hara

The Film Museum in Girona has a movie posters gallery where you can see the evolution of these promotional materials throughout several centuries of cinema.

Barrel organ from the 1780s

This instrument was used by the travelling lanternists to accompany the magic lantern projections and enhance their shows.

Cosmorama from the 19th century

Travelling lanternists statuettes

Lithophane of Thisbe from the 19th century

Besides the interesting visual effect produced by the translucency, the artistic work to create the reliefs in the porcelain from moulds, and generate very accurate gradients and believable scenes, is remarkable.

Gaumont film camera from 1910

Coronet photographic enlarger from 1850-1900

Daguerreotype and autochrome

On the right, an autochrome from 1902. On the left, a daguerreotype dating from between 1840 and 1860. For this technique, invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, a metallic support and silver salts were used, and it initially required extended exposure times to be completed, usually over 10 minute exposures, which would have certainly generated severe contractures in any person attempting a selfie in those times.

Ferrotype from 1860

Stereoscope-graphoscope

On the left, a combined graphoscope and stereoscopic photography viewer. On the right, stereoscopic photographs used in that device; the sharp image at the bottom is from the late 19th century, was made by the American Stereoscopic Company from New York, and was entitled "A bashful lover."

Collodion photographic camera

An 1880 camera manufactured by Voigtländer.

Travel photography camera from 1900

Manufactured by the Italian company of Luigi Piseroni and Ottorino Mondini, Piseroni & Mondini.

Travel photography camera from 1870-1900

Another camera manufactured by Eugène Derogy’s company, in Paris, in this case a portable model.

Pathé film projector from the 1920s

HMV gramophone and advertising material

Gramophone of the "His Master’s Voice" brand from 1898.

Projection praxinoscope from 1882

An invention of Émile Reynaud, precursor of the film projector, that uses a series of mirrors, as seen on the picture in the center of the device, and sequential images around it, which are transilluminated, and through a rotational system it creates the illusion of animation when projecting them on a surface.

Old room projector

Probably inspired by the principle of the camera obscura, this old projector was installed in a room with an exterior opening, and by means of the sunlight it projected a translucent image inside the room, as can been seen on the diagram next to the device.