fotóművészet

SUMMARY – 2014/1.

Vol. 2014/1 of Fotóművészet begins with an interview made by Sándor Bacskai with Gábor Gerhes Munkácsy Prize winner artist, university and college lecturer. “It has been left out of my career that I would pick out a master with whom we have a chat, to whom I present my works. At the same time there have been important persons whose works I could follow, and I have listened eagerly to every word of theirs. I have been lucky; I could always get close to the prominent artists. I have never ventured to hanging permanently around them, I would have take it as an intrusion, while working I have often tried to find out what they would thing of this or that.”

In Appearance of worlds under appearance Klára Szarka comments on Péter Herendi’s exhibition – New photos 2012–2013: “As artist, Péter Herendi enters into the meaning of the matter as if he examined the essence not visible by naked eye, by means of a sort of artist’s microscope. Although something is being born before our eyes the viewer can always join with, yet we would not gladly reveal our ‘earth-bound’ associations in regard to the constructivist paintings, cyber cities, deep-sea worlds, or psychedelic revelations coming to being on the artist’s pictures. Let it be the private puzzling out of everyone.”

Two authors comment on the series Used Stones documenting synagogue buildings in Europe, Edit Barta in Hidden past and photographer Bernadett Alpern’s article. Here is a quotation from the latter one: “Once splendid cultural and religious buildings today standing like skeletons, disused, rebuilt, reused Jewish churches and prayer houses, can still be found in the historical centres of the European Jewish people. The sometimes monumental, sometimes modest buildings are today used as concert halls, museums, furniture stores, Olympic training centres, police house, fire station or even cleaner’s saloon.”

With four eyes – dialogue extracts from Paris is Edit Barta’s and Judit Gellér’s chatting about the famous Paris Photo fair: “This is one of the greatest event of the world which everybody dealing with photography should visit once at least; that’s why we have decided, we, too, should go to see it. We knew we are going to a monumental event, this is why we were interested in what does it mean if a fair has two curators, what kind of theoretical framework they provide to the whole event. We were also interested in whether it has any likeness to the world of critical exhibitions, biennales better known to us.”

In Magdolna Bilkei-Gorzó’s obituary Károly Kincses commemorates of his old, beloved colleague: “For 16 years three mornings every week we three – aunty Magdi, Magdi Kolta and me – got into the museum’s car and went to Kecskemét, and during the one and half hour ride she was telling us stories of seminar  value about the great personalities of Hungarian photography. She had an amazingly profound knowledge. It was in that car I acquired my third degree, and she was my teacher. By now I am the only living person of the passengers of that car.”

In Fellow-travellers for forty years  Anne Kotzan examines the relationship between Bernd and Hilla Becher photographers and Lothar Schirmer publisher: Schirmer visited the Bechers in 1971 for the first time, after that their typologically selected series taken of industrial buildings had been picked out for the “Wie die Schönheit sei, das weiß ich nicht” exhibition in the Nürnberg Kunsthalle.

In Brave old world Ferenc Markovics comments on Alice Inkey’s exhibition: “At the present exhibition she tried to refine the still photos to individual works also by turning the originally landscape-oriented  pictures to more stretched,  nota bene standing ones. After all, she cut off indeed those redundant picture parts which the DP could not leave out because of being landscape oriented. But her real greatest merit is that even in the heat of the shootings she laid emphasis on the most typical, the most important moments of the scene.”

Péter Tímár wrote an obituary of photo artist Gábor Kerekes: “In our last phone talk he said in irritation: he must die now when at last he could indeed be a success; then we dismissed it with a joke namely that only the dead artist is the good artist. Nevertheless, he could have had a lot to do; wonderful pictures came out of his hands faster and faster, as he felt running out of time.”

In “Developing” Katalin Bognár and Marianna Kiscsatári write up the activity of Antal Wormser press photographer: “The several thousands 6×6 mm and miniature-camera negatives Wormser donated to the Hungarian National Museum, he had made as press photographer for Esti Hilap, provide photo report on more or less two decades over the period of 1966 to 1986. The number of cartridges (120 shots as an average) is more than 240 since they were made for Esti Hírlap; in addition to cartridges containing one month work each, there are photos without caption and other reports made to order. As a result of more than six-years processing work, by now (January 2014) 18 962 photos can be found on computer.”

Éva Fisli’s article – Parentheses – is linked up to the Wormser Antal exhibition in the Historical Photographic Archive of the Hungarian National Museum.

In Photos in the captivity of the ÁVH (State Security Authorities) Ilona Stemler Balog tells the adventurous history of the about ten thousand negatives of the Magyar Filmiroda Rt. (MFI) (Hungarian Film Agency Ltd.): “The whole story is surrounded by great suppressions. Turning the pages of the documents of the Hungarian National Museum it is striking that unimportant daily issues, insignificant collections, purchases were over-administrated while there is no documentation available about really important acquisitions – such as the handover of the MFI collection, the same as there is no documentation about the classification of the collection, neither about carrying away nor returning it by the ÁVH . In the studies referred to, processing the classified documents of the OSZK (National Széchenyi Library) and in the documents published in the volume there is no mention about the MFI collection.”

Zoltán Fejér in his article on the history of photo-technology recalls the just now hundred years old Kosmo-Clack stereo-panorama camera: “In addition to the above favourable characteristics, a typical feature of Kosmo-Clack is a relatively long, rack-and pinion  sharpness control extension, which retreats completely into the body in transportation condition or in infinity adjustment. The extension plays an important part not only in short-distance photographing but also when transforming it to a stereo viewer.”

New albums on Péter Tímár’s Bookshelf: Adam Broomberg + Oliver Chanarin: Holy Bible, Klára Szarka editor: Endre Kabos, a smart champion (1906–1944), Robert Capa in Italia 1943–1944, Alice Inkey: No de Alizka!  (Well Alice!) (Picture-tales from the history of Hungarian film history.

In Panoramas János Palotai  reviews two books by Ernő P. Szabó art historian. One is about László Haris steadily experimenting “seeking ways and means” in the seventies,  while the other one – Egy kicsi együtt repülés (Flying a bit together) provides a panorama picture: interviews made with Hungarian and foreign artists, theoretical and cultural experts. The latter book embraces almost 40 years and several generations.