SUMMARY 2001/3-4

It's more than just a trade is the title of the interview Ilona Nádor photographer gave to Klára Szarka. Ilona Nádor rose up the hierarchy through promotion by seniority: she started off as photographer apprentice, and continued her career as trainee, and eventually would have become master if the war had not intervened. From May 1945 until 1947 she had been working for the Forrás Printing House, then she got a job at the daily Szabad Nép. Two years later she went over to Magyar Nap and then to Nők Lapja to which she remained loyal for forty years. "Since I stopped photographing I have been making photos "in theory", Ilona Nádor says in the interview.

Balázs Gárdi was interviewed by Péter Baki. "To do that work you need a great deal of egoism, exhibitionism, and it is important that you make sure that things are always going well. It also needs a lot of sacrifices, but in my case luckily for me, they have born fruit. This is what I have to do, and this is what I love to do", the prize-winner young press photographer of the daily Népszabadság says. His photo essay has already been put on show at an exhibition of the World Press Photo scholarship holders in Rotterdam.

"A greater part of our work is dead boring" - Csaba Habik press photographer tells Klára Szarka in an interview from which you can learn that Habik originally wanted to become "beat musician", then Olympic champion cyclist; as well as what should be on a press photo; why it is good or bad if a daily paper has got an Internet edition; or that photos are also cribbed; or why political photographs are depreciating so fast, and which one would last for ever; and that people would always love being photographed.

"There are two kinds of photographer in me: one is trying to achieve the technical maximum in classical photographing of large form; and my second self is much interested in digital photographing.", this is the introductory sentence of the interview Sándor Bacskai made with András Hász photographer. "The large negative form has still got life and soul; it means me a lot what is beaming from a photo of that size. I love the way the older gene-ration used to work and I am sorry for that technology getting old-fashioned" - Hász says later in the interview. Looking at his photographs you can make sure that applied (ad) photograph does not have any secret not known to him.

Enikő Gábor born in 1972, has a degree in painting but because she likes experimenting, it is no wonder that her pictures are photograms rather than photographs. Luckily for me, she says, painters consider me to be painter and photo-graphers to be photographer. She would like to present herself through the language of fine art. „ I wish to present myself" is the title of a friendly talk Marcell Pécsi has had with Enikő.

This article comprises the comments made by Csilla E. Csorba at the opening of the exhibition Fotószalon 2001 in M?csarnok. After summing up the general state of Hungarian photo arts, the art historian talks about the different styles, trends and artists. "There is no denying that we are attending the most monumental photo-artistic show of the past years. Photo art has found itself in recent years, its existence and emancipation has for long been an issue of facts" she points out.

Lord Snowdon born Tony Armstrong Jones, ex-husband of British Princess Margaret, is an all-round photographer with a successful career, György Szegő points out in an article "The photo as costume". Lord Snowdon is a world-famous representative of first-class conservatism, he is the official portrait photographer of Queen Elizabeth II, and at the same time he is the chronicler of the miserable in the developing countries and of the handicapped in the Western world. He is stage designer, dress-designer, he makes calendar photos and documentaries. Lord Snowdon is member of the Royal Photographic Society, president of the Royal College of Art and correspondent of the Sunday Times. His photos have been put on the list of the "Best photos of the decade".

The System of Moments is the title of a retrospective exhibition and photo-album by Dennis Hopper famous American actor - film director. The 63 year old artist started making films and photos at the age of sixteen in 1954, it was namely then that James Dean put the first camera into Hopper's hand, noting, it would do him no harm if he learned how to compose a photo. "The System of Moments is the key to understand Hopper's artistic approach, namely that he sees in the single shots the whole film, in the photos the story, in the abstract screen the figure, in the commercial posters the mockery of consumption, on the front page of magazines the background of creating a star", Eszter Götz comments.

In an interview "A Free Spirit" András Bán is introducing the late Iván Rozgonyi poet and one-time editor of Fotóm?vészet. "His personality was decisive to many of us, and yet - despite his poems, series of artist-interviews, his founding this review, and a few visible fragments of his life - his life remained hidden", Bán writes when portraying a man always loyal to his moral law and political morality. Beyond the life story of Iván Rozgonyi, András Bán also touches on art academic questions and colleagues.

In Fotóm?vészet No. 3-4 Klára Fogarasy reports on photos collected by Catholic missionaries in America, Africa and Asia, and sent home to Hungary. The author presents the studio photographs of that collection. At the end of the nineteenth century photographs, too, furthered the cause of missionaries: they conveyed illustrated news in order to persuade believers to make donation to charity for the missionaries.

Zoltán Fejér comes forward with two articles: In one he continues his series about the history of Hungarian photo industry by presenting the career of Dr. Miklós Vajta electrical engineer and camera designer; in the other one he reports on Westlicht, a new gallery in Vienna which has a permanent collection of photographic equipment, and it regularly organises photo exhibitions.