SUMMARY 2001/5-6

America is a very hard school, says Tamás Révész who has been living and working for five years in New York. The Pulitzer Prize winner, successful well reputed photographer in Hungary, Révész plunged into the unknown for the simple reason of looking for adventures or striving for professional appraisal. He is photographing, he has had successful exhibitions, his books are published and he designs web-sites. There is an interest in his work in France and in Sweden. But there is still a lot ahead of me, he notes. The fact that Révész does share his experience obtained abroad with the folks back in home, makes Klára Szarka's interview interesting.

Both interviewees of Gábor Pfisztner are talking about New York. One is Photo Artist Luca Göbölyös talking about her affection for that city. During her very first visit already she felt like she had understood, or learned something of the city with which she fell in love. Recently she spent three months in New York, took part in an exhibition, worked on a subject and started working on a new project, as well.

Helga Petra Nagy got acquainted with a different Manhattan: she was witness to the devastation of the World Trade Center. "When we learned what had happened, my first reaction was then 'let's go to the scene'. I quickly put the camera in my bag, and we ran down into the street." "But why do you think you must get there and take photos?" I asked myself. Well that is for which I cannot give an explanation... It was as if my brain were unable to perceive what was happening. It was much later the penny dropped, and I realised what had actually happened" - she recalls the day of September 11th.

Photos made by Sándor Sára film director and cameraman, in India, have been exhibited in the Malom Gallery in Szentendre. The exhibition dedicated to young died Amrita Sher-Gil, was opened by Péter Dobai writer. Sándor Sára's portraits photographed during his extraordinary journey back in time are presented through his words to the Readers.

Hardly a hundred pictures is the title of Eszter Götz's interview: "Miklós Csák is a rare specimen," she notes in the introduction. Although early discovered and reputed photo artist, Csák is still keeping out of sight. He is rarely seen on exhibitions, in albums or in journals. He chooses his subjects carefully and also relentlessly discards some of his own photos..." In the interview he is talking most of all about architectural photographing and about pictures taken in Southeast Asia.

Pleasant, immense solitude is the title of the interview Marcell Pécsi made with István Hortoványi employed photographer. "In this job it is of basic importance that you work professionally", Hortoványi says; adding that "All customers insist on quality. Therefore, it is a basic requirement. You cannot say, sorry, that quality I cannot provide you but in three days because it takes me that long to hit on it. No. If it is requested, I must be able to supply it."

János Sturcz scrutinizes Jenő Detvay's fictive personal giant posters. Detvay applies the traditional European form of existential photographic still life with a specific Central-East European claustrophobic character, masking it with the giant poster's illusorily universal "global" visual language, its primitive stereotypes, its monumental size and format and with its technical perfection.

Camera obscena is the title of the article containing the unfinished stories of Sarolta Szabó and Tibor Bánóczki about Berlin. Sarolta Szabó's Obscura photos were made when she got a scholarship from the Berlin Hochschule der Künste. On the photos the experience in a peep show is mixing with the atmosphere of a theatre stage and of amateur videos. These photos are like horror films: they try to look serious, and this is why, they are ridiculous; the tragedy strained to pathetic pathos, turns into comedy.

Two of our authors are dealing with Lucien Hervé living for long in France. Vali Fekete visited the photo artist in his home in Paris. " Of any thing you can make something beautiful, no matter what it is, a slip of paper or a puddle in the street. You just need to find the visual contexts through which they give you an aesthetic experience", says Hervé in the interview "Beauty is just lying in the street..."

András Bán writes in his essay: "In Hervé's photos that self-assurance is shocking as he dominates the whole surface of the photo while ignoring some unquestionable rules of photographing... Why not to use an individual, expressive way of displaying in any field of applied photo?" Hervé asks quietly but resolutely.

Eszter Götz is the author of the article "Soft lines" about Aliona Frankl's exhibition in the Institut Francais. "The contour of the photograms put on show are soft indeed. Aliona put a bottle filled with water between the figure leaving a light-mark and the sensitized paper, sometimes she ripples the surface or just lets the water melt like fire the clearness of the contours and the hardness of the forms. She wanted to see how the objective reality filtered through the water element of instinct looks like.

In "Time cans" Gábor Pfisztner presents Hiroshi Sugimoto winner of Hasselblad Prize in 2001. According to the explanation of the decision Sugimoto who was born in Japan and has been living in the US since 1970, is one of the best-known contemporary photographers who has been acknowledged for 25 years or so, for his work by the connoisseurs. In his main subjects he couples the Eastern meditative way of thinking with the motives of Western culture.

The Historical Photo Gallery of the Hungarian National Museum is Hungary's largest photo archive Fotom?vészet presents the Readers this unique collection of one million photos and the museologists responsible for collecting, processing and handling these national treasures. Two of four interviews made by Sándor Bacskai are published in this issue, one with Ilona Stemlerné Balog and another one with Katalin Jalsovszky.

Mr Mladek'case with the X-ray, is the title of Zoltán Fejér's article: The apropos of the article is that hundred years before, in 1901, Wilhelm Conrad Röngten German physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize. The subject of it is, that Dr Milos Paul Mladek radiologist, born in 1994 in Vienna, photographed and visualised ca-meras in a way that nobody had done ever before.

In the latest part of his series "Chapters of the history of the Hungarian photo industry" Zoltán Fejér presents the Readers the photographing and phototechnical history in the neighbourhood of Király utca 69. The keywords are Győző Ritter photographer, Vámos Adolf Magyar Fotóipar Rt, the review FÉNYKÉPÉSZ and János Wessely.