fotóművészet

SUMMARY 2000/1-2


Miklós Gulyás doing the “autonomous report”, comments on his activity: “in the MTI they wanted to make me sport photographer but it did not work. When I realised what they believed to be important, I knew it was of no interest to me. Of course, nor I was prepared to live up the expectations on a press photographer, that’s why I haven’t become a press photographer... In report making there exists an ambition... it is striving not for realism, rather for visualizing an existing subjective pictorial vision and searching for constellations that can come up in the course of depicting.”

Ákos Gábor Varga introduces himself in the Polaroid Galéria: “This series of pictures refect unusual quietness; there is nothing conceptual or invented in it. There are things, which are not invented... and then the photographers neither defines nor rates something. And yet this visualisation is not reserved. The pictures are coming near us” – The title of the review of Erzsébet Nóra Tóth is “Noises of quietness”.

Károly Pump was born in Baja, since his age of twenty-one he has been living in Germany. He has worked for several ad studios, currently he is photographer in Nürnberg. In the nineties he spent a longer time in Budapest, and made photos of panorama size to a wall calendar. He is talking about this monumental work as well as about earlier periods of his life.

Dr. János Szász reviews Ernő Tillai’s album “The picturesque Pécs”; as a matter of fact, this rewiew differs from the usual reviews in so far as he reviews not simply the album but also includes an interview with the architect-photographer.

Vince Lakatos (1907-1978) has been known as author and film-maker so far dealing with the world of farms and the farmers’life in the environs of Kiskunhalas. His documentaries Sunset, Courier, Memento have been a great success also in the TV. This time Károly Szűcs reviews the photographer oeuvre. The author may rightly claim that just a fracture of the oeuvre is known to those dealing in the history of photographing.

György Szegő went to see “the dandy photographer’s”, Cecil Beaton’s exhibition. “Affected as the backdrop may or not be, it is a milieu of studied prosaism: Beaton illuminates masterly a portrait or a genre picture. Models’ eyes are living, one see through their gestures, it results a story. The question is whether the story is true or not?”, asks Szegő in his report “Silver light”.

“The most frightening are the young, the middle-aged and the old aged people. Their glance is dull, not only that of the then worker now homeless. People’s psyche is becomes dull not only due to the damage made by pubs, slaughter houses, areas of prostitution etc. The everyday mask of “the man-in the street” has become interlaced with the mask of Central European everyday concerns, unworthy to a human being”, György Szegő comments on Imre Benkő’s – prominent Hungarian photographer – book “Dull lights”.

Klára Szarka interviewed Jan Sibik well-known Czech press photographer: “You can always find some interesting subject but the chance of taking emotionally strongly fascinating photos, is getting less by the time. You must be more and more creative to be poignant. This why you must rush to the scene. You are racing against the time not the agencies” says the correspondent of Reflex a very popular magazine in Prague.

In another essay Klára Szarka presents Csaba Habik through the sports photos of this versatile reporter.

Marianna Kiscsatári commemorates the in January deseased Sándor Bojár (1914-2000). The Balázs Béla and Munkácsi Márton Prize winner photographer is a prominent personality of the Hungarian press photographers’ society who began his career in 1932. He was present at the 1938 Eucharistic Congress. He saw and took photos of Ciano, Thomas Mann and Victor Emanuel III as well as of bringing home war criminals and the massacre on 25 October 1956. Sándor Bojár made history by his camera.

Last autumn the Hungarian Photographic Associaton – the former Budapest Photo Club or MADOME – celebrated its 100th anniversary. After the festive event András Hidas president of the Club briefed Péter Baki about the Club’s membership, financing, operation and future plans.

As many as three photo galleries are working in Toronto (Canada). Judit Tatar founder and co-owner of the Tatar-Alexander Gallery informed Péter Baki about the life and the operation of the Gallery. In the interview she points out what the difference is between European and North American photographers. The Hungarian-born gallery-owner is talking not only about the guiding principle of selecting and purchasing items, about keeping in touch but also about picture dealing in detail, and about the difference between European and North American photographers.

To this article are related Photographer Gábor Kerekes’s very practical useful advices to those intending to send their pictures to shows or to galleries.

Pál Greguss reports on the operation of PAL (Panoramic Annual Lens). In addition to taking photos Greguss wanted to use the lens not only to photographing but also for measuring technical purposes. As a result, a picture taking block was obtained creating a three-dimensional miniature picture volume in the lens about the three-dimensional field around the picture block.