His parents were Walery Antoni Stanisław Bułhak of Syrokomla and Józefa née Haciska of Roch, both local landowners in Ostaszyn.

In 1888, Jan entered a gymnasium (a pre-Revolution secondary public school of the Russian Empire) in Wilno (present-day Vilnius), finishing it in 1897.

That December, he made his debut and won the main award at a photo competition run by Życie Ilustrowane ("Illustrated Life"), a weekly supplement to Kurier Litewski ("Lithuanian Courier").

He participated in a photo exhibition in Ciechocinek, Poland; and received an honorary diploma in the category of artistic portraits at a contest in Antwerp.

The book shows Jan Bulhak as a person that a father figure to generations of amazing photography beginners looking to practice and aspired the called artists, as well as offering interesting contribution to reflection on the image of the artists.Jan Bulhak could also be considered as a prominent producer when it came to the concept of self-promotion and entrepreneurial organization of a photographer's activity.

Though Bułhak's views on art, inspired by French aestheticians, had already formed, Ruszczyc helped to turn the amateur photographer into a professional: the painter taught him some specific techniques of composition to perceive nature and architecture.

At the request of the Vilnius Magistrate and in cooperation with the municipal curator, Bułhak started making a "photographic inventory" of the city and took pictures of its historic landmarks from 1912 to 1915.

From 1919, with Ruszczyc's help and encouragement, Bułhak started lecturing on artistic photography at the Fine Arts Department of the Stefan Batory University; he would continue until 1939.

[4] From 1919 to 1939, Jan Bułhak headed the photographic section (workshop) of the Fine Arts Department of Stefan Batory University in Vilnius.

In 1939, the collection titled Polska w obrazach fotograficznych Jana Bułhaka ("Poland in Jan Bułhak’s photographic pictures") contained over 11,000 photos arranged into 158 subject albums: Vilnius, Kresy, Volhynia, Lviv, Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Pomerania, Gdańsk, Nowogródek Voivodeship and others.

[2] Under the occupation during World War II, Jan Bułhak together with his son continued to photograph the destruction of many places in what was then Poland.

[7] In the words of Tomas Venclova: Bułhak's portrayal of Vilnius and its environs is not just documentary: reminiscent of impressionist paintings, his valuable artistic photographs reflect the particular aura of the Old Town and its surrounding landscape.

[7]In the estimation of Laimonas Briedis: [Bułhak] spoke of and, in his mesmerising black-and-white prints, attempted to capture [Wilno's] sinuous nature.

Bułhak placed the city onto the fluid landscape of a human soul, and made it a challenge to the hardened, familiar parameters of European time and space.

[10]Bułhak wrote a number of books on the technique and art of photography, memoirs of Ferdynand Ruszczyc (1939), and also some poems and short stories.

Some photographs are in the collections of the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University (California).