On 26^th of November 1996 in Nowy Targ, there was opened the Regional PTTK Museum, which was later renamed and today functions under the name Czesław Pajerski Museum in Podhale region. Being the initiator of establishing this regional Museum in Nowy Targ, Czesław Pajerski (1931-2000) had been working as its curator for many years. Thanks to his efforts, among museum core collections including ethnographic, cultural, and historical items from Podhale region, there can be also found some photographs of Nowy Targ gathered from private collections and institutions. In the course of time this collection of photographs, thanks to donations, was becoming greater and greater and today consists of several hundred original photos and its reproductions dated from 19^th century to 1970s. These photographs picture some views of Nowy Targ and document many important events in the history of the town, its cultural, socio-economic and religious background, as well as everyday life and jobs of the citizens. Many of them are the portraits of inhabitants taken by the professional photographers working in the town at that time. The most interesting pieces, among others, are: the oldest photographs depicting historical, no longer existing sceneries of the town; photos from the visitor’s book of the Józef Haller Association^[1]; pictures dating back to the times of German occupation signed by Zbigniew Sułkowski photo lab; photos from the private collections of Stanisław Pęksa, the notary public and Zbigniew Sułkowski, the local judge; photographs taken by the students of the local high school (I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Seweryna Goszczyńskiego) attending the Photographic Group supervised by Prof. Józef Bryniczka. Moreover, in 2000, the Museum was enriched with the collection of photos coming from the photo archive of the well-known professional photographer in Nowy Targ, Edward Morawetz, which was donated by his daughter, Irena Starczowska.

The photographs gathered in the Museum were frequently presented on various exhibitions. In 1974, thanks to the efforts of Czesław Pajerski, in the local high school (I Liceum Ogólnokształcące), there were presented some old, saved photos documenting the history of the junior high school (pl. gimnazjum) in Nowy Targ, the ephemeral prints and the first flag of the school. This exhibition has become the permanent exposition of the Regional PTTK Museum organized in the rooms of the former school chapel (photography from the collection of A. Nowak. In the photo, there are pictured the members of the Museum Committee operating since 1967 headed by Adam Szoski, the lawyer and by the teacher at high school. From the left side of the photo stand: Józef Rayski, Adam Szoski, Antoni Nowak, Aniela Stołowska, Zofia Stopka, Aleksander Stal, Stanisław Bafia i Czesław Pajerski)

The Museum of Podhale region was the author and the organizer of many thematic exhibitions on which there were presented the most valuable and the most interesting photos, like for example: “Nowy Targ at the turn of 19^th and 20^th century” (1994) (pl. “Nowy Targ na przełomie XIX i XX wieku”, “Not lost forever. Nowy Targ in the photography of Edward Morawetz” (2000) (pl. „Aby nie przepadło na zawsze. Nowy Targ w fotografii Edwarda Morawetza”), two commemorative exhibitions concerning the history of the fire-brigade in Nowy Targ (2001 and 2011), “The crazy Twenties and Thirties of the 20^th century– entertainment of the inhabitants in Nowy Targ” (pl. “Szalone lata XX-te i XXX-te XX wieku – rozrywki nowotorżan”) and „Sports in Nowy Targ in the early 20^th century” (pl. “Nowotarski sport w pierwszej połowie XX wieku”). It is worth remembering that in 1984, at the Cooperative Community Center (pl. Spółdzielczy Dom Kultury), there was organized the symposium entitled “The past of the Nowy Targ region” (pl. “Z przeszłości Nowotarszczyzny”) connected with the exhibition called “The photography of Nowy Targ in 19^th and 20^th century” (pl. “Nowy Targ w XIX i XX wieku w fotografii”) that was prepared by Antoni Nowak. He was also the initiator of the contest  “The portraits of the citizens in Nowy Targ” announced in 1991 by Podhalańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk (pl. Podhale Association for Friends of Science) in cooperation with the Municipal Community Center (MCC) in Nowy Targ. The best photos were presented on the exhibition at the MCC. In 1990, again at the Municipal Community Center, there took place the exhibition of Morawetz family photographs presenting not only the photographs of the family nestor, Edward Morawetz, but also those taken by his son, Kazimierz and grandchildren, Krzysztof and Gabriela.

The interest in photography translates also into publications. For a number of years historians and researchers of the region have been using the collections of photographs, treating them as an illustrative material for their publications and a reliable source of knowledge concerning the history of the town. The first article about the photography in the Nowy Targ region was written by Antoni Nowak and published in the study entitled “The history of Nowy Targ” (pl. “Dzieje miasta Nowego Targu”) in 1991. Many of the photographs from the collections of the Museum were published and described in the album publications such as: “The Old Nowy Targ. On illustrations, pictures and postcards” (pl. „Stary Nowy Targ. Na rycinach, obrazach i kartkach pocztowych”) edited by A. Nowak and A. Nowak in 1996; in the book under the title “Nowy Targ. The pictures from the town of the two cultures” (pl. „Nowy Targ. Obrazki z miasteczka dwóch kultur”) written by A. Majorczyk in 2007. Furthermore, some archival photos revealed in the thesis prepared by B. Kowalik “Nowy Targ 1867-1918. The half a century that changed the nature of the town” (pl. „Nowy Targ 1867-1918. Pół wieku, które zmieniło oblicze miasta”) and in the subsequent issues of the annual entitled “Almanach Nowotarski”. In the first issue (1996), Czesław Pajerski published the biographical essay about his father, Edward who was the photographer of Nowy Targ.

The Musem of Podhale region, within the project „Photographs of the Polish-Slovak borderland. Let’s save them from oblivion” (pl. „Ocalić od zapomnienia. Fotografie polsko-słowackiego pogranicza”), has made an attempt not only to prepare and digitalize its own collections of photographs, but also to open them to the wide public on the Internet website in the album “Nowy Targ”. In the album, additionally, there will be presented photos given by the participants of the contest for the most interesting photo concerning the history of Nowy Targ which will be conducted by the Museum during the project.

It is digital technology that make it possible to show the photographs on the greatest public forum which is the Internet. This fact makes us happy, the more so since the album “Nowy Targ” constitutes the first so extensive overview of the photographs dated back from the late 19^th century to 1945. And despite the fact that the photos gathered by the Museum do not tell the whole history of Nowy Targ, they extend our knowledge about not very distant past and create a many-sided portrait of the town that today, at the very beginning of the 21^st century, does no more exist. In just a century marked by two world wars, by experience of living in the socialist system, and by dilemmas concerning a redefinition of the notions such as democracy or local autonomy, the character, the nature and the size of Nowy Targ have completely changed.

In the photos, it is easy to recognize the most characteristic places and figures such as : St. Katherine Church, the Town Hall, the particular houses and town houses of the Main Square, the buildings of the junior high school, the hospital and the “Sokół”^[2]. But at the same time it can be seen that the passing time has left its permanent marks and that Nowy Targ at present is completely different from the town that is pictured in the old photographs.

The sepia and black-and-white archival photographs taken by the professional photographers working in Nowy Targ such as: Stanisław Bochyński, Józef Stefan Christ, Edward Morawetz and Francieszek Rozłucki or by the photo labs in Zakopane conducted by Stanisław Zdyba, Józef Oppenheim, Zbigniew Sułkowski and the other anonymous persons whose names are not to identify at present, have documented and captured not only the views of the town that were lost, the faces of people that died, but also the fleeting moments, the scenes from life of the small town, as well as some passed events and situations. With sentiment and tenderness or may be with the passion of a researcher we can lean over the past captured in the photographs in order to find and save from oblivion even a small part of the history and the spirit of the past.