fotóművészet

SUMMARY 2003/3-4


Volume 3-4/2003 of Fotóművészet starts with an interview with photo artist György Tóth. Apropos of the conversation has been that one of the photographer’s work – Self-portrait – got into San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Arts. The interview made by Sándor Bacskai gives an insight into the moments of the photographer’s life and professional and artistic career, which helps the reader get closer to the world of a creative artist who managed to find out his own style.

In “The responsibility of free creating” Gábor Pfisztner reports on an exhibition of the graduates of the University of Applied Arts Visual Communication FacultyCsongor Simsay, Kolos Somlói, Gábor Arion Kudász, Szilvia Mucsy, Edina Szabó, Zsófia Bérczy, Zoltán Kovács and Zoltán Szádovszky. The author deals with the works in detail, pointing out “the technically well trained but in some respects still inexperienced graduates of the year 2003 have been trying hard to prove their talent and expertise what they have seemingly achieved on account of the exhibition.”

In “Gypsy camp to heaven..??” Gábor Pfisztner comments on photos by András Hajdu, who has photographed nomadic Gypsies in Transsylvania (Rumania). Despite all “watering down and embellishing”, the photos represent the real truth which is palpable, existing and perceptible so as shown in the pictures.

Klára Szarka interviewed Endre Schwanner photo artist and expert author on photographic technology of Fotoművészet. Aesculap Fotóklub, Studio Nadar, Magyar Fotóművészek Szövetsége (Association of Hungarian Photo Artists), Főfotó, Lapkiadó Vállalat, Réti, Bence, Féner, Hemző, silk Stalin pictures, “door-to-door” photographing service, motor sport photographing, Svjatoslav Richter, Fotóművészeti Galéria (Photo Arts Gallery) – some key words of the interview to help the readers get an insight into the history of Hungarian photographing and familiarise with Hungary’s cultural history, as well.

In “Imago, 4. transl. comparison, parable, tale, picture, nightmare, appearance”, András Bán reports on the exhibition “Human stories” in the Ludwig Museum (Budapest), showing “photo-like” works – first of all by Beecroft, Goldin, Gursky, Moffatt – from the Austrian ESSL-collection.

This year Malian Malick Sidib? was awarded the world-wide acknowledged life achievement prize of the Swedish Hasselblad Award. Gábor Pfisztner presents Malick Sidib? who was born in Sudan 1936, learned the tricks of photographing from a French master, and is currently living and working in Bamako.

György Sümegi presents two persons to the readers who used to roam the streets of Budapest in October 1956 with camera in hand. One of them is Éva Saáry Budapest-trained photographer. After the revolution she fled Hungary and settled down in Switzerland and is still an active artists. The other one is Kálmán Kecskeméti photographer, painter and graphic artist – who as high-school student used to take photos of the main scenes of the 1956 uprising.

“A photographer from Tolna” is the title of the article in which Mária V Kápolnás presents the career of Frigyes Tomecskó who lived all his life in a Transdanubian provincial town. The museologist’s essay gives a good example that summing up the work of photographers less known outside their province is of benefit to the history and culture of Hungarian photographing.

In “’In memory of my schooldays.’ From the mosaic to the tableau” Melinda Bogdán surveys the development of a segment of portrait photographing, its formal solutions and system of symbols. One of her noteworthy observations is that after putting them onto the tableau, the individual photographs go on fun-ctioning as integral parts of the picture. The author deserves credit for referring to the outlay of the pictures on the tableau, its typography, graphics and its “political role”.

Forgotten photographer on an unknown island – János Reismann, forty-five years ago the “forgotten photographer” roamed Sardinia Island with the famous Italian writer, Carlo Levi, and a book was written about their adventures. In addition to details of the journey Károly Kincses author of the article reports that an exhibition will soon show the life’s work of the photographer, and a Reismann monograph will be published in the near future.

Etelka L Baji writes about the Bonfils family who had been living in the 19th century Middle East. Born in France 1867, Félix Bonfils had opened a photographic studio in Beirut. Getting prosperous in a couple of years, the company set up branch shops in Alexandria, Cairo and also in France. Several albums with their photographs have been published.

In “Eye and camera” György Szegő presents the historical collection of photographs of the Vienna Albertina. The newly complied collection invites the visitors to a fantastic tour in the history of photographing: a collection comprising pictures from the first town photographs of Vienna in the 1840s, or erotic compositions or landmark documentary photos, to the artistic portrait.

The technical section of our review contains two articles. One is the latest part of Zoltán Fejér’s series “Roaming around Europe”. This time the author went to Vevey, Switzerland, and visited the museum where recently products of the Alpa camera-factory were exhibited. In those days the miniature reflex camera designed by Jacques Boolsky of Eastern European origin, used to belong to the category of top-class cameras.

Gábor Pfisztner reports on the latest models of large size ink jet printers of EPSON. Technological innovations applied to Stylus Pro 7600 and 9600 printers, such as Micro Piezo printing heads and new UltraChrome paints, provide a resolution and picture quality better than ever before, which may result in dissipating all bias against digital technology accumulating in the past decades, for good.