SUMMARY
The first article Readers can read in the first issue of Fotóművészet 2008, is Sándor Bacskai’s interview with Tamás Szlukovényi. The press photographer born in 1951, had worked first for the MTI (Hungarian Press Agency), then for the daily Népszava; in 1980 he settled in Canada and worked for the Globe and Mail for ten years in Toronto. Since 1990 he has been working for Reuters, as correspondent and editor in Vienna, Moscow, Singapore and Berlin, currently he is the Global Picture Editor responsible for six hundred photographers, i.e. he is one of the top-ranking managers of that world-famed company. “I think, I am a good team player – he says. – You can hardly play the star in that kind of work. Of course everyone must be good photo-grapher, but it is even more important that we should stick together.”
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György Lajos (1934–2007) prominent press photographer and editor of the MTI was preparing for his death. “Instead of grieving in vain, please let’s start thinking because it not only broadens your knowledge but also delights you; that taught me to value the tastes of life. In all kind of activities, as photo-grapher, as well, it was the joy of discovery I took delight in, the vision I was interested in (…). I am happy to have been able to live with you! I have been given more than I have deserved” – he writes in his soul-stirring Funeral oration.
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Zsuzsanna Kemenesi reports on Lenke Szilágyi’s recent exhibition Re-latively new pictures: “As the Lady in fur-coat (2005) fixes her eyes on you, or the Noble fine young ladies I–II (2006) fascinate you, or the Fisherman’s portrait also suitable for iris diagnostics (2004), appears, Lenke Szilágyi pre-sents with her archive pigment prints genuine pose-less faces with the visual language of the era which is based on masks and physiognomies.”
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Virág Böröczfy’s article Potential worlds, has been written in relation to Krisztina Erdei’s Formalities exhibition: “Apparently she interprets her life through pictures. She writes a quasi visual diary so that she makes use of the potential seen to be “unlimited” on human scale, or of the digital technology, this way making possible to record any accidental impulse and to look back in a specific place and time which broadens the possibility of experimenting and provides more opportunity for direct reflection about events in her life.”
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Gábor Pfisztner comments on Miklós Gulyás’s new photo album Explor-ing the fatherland – Hungary: “Neither in the early nineties was Miklós Gulyás’s intention to please the viewer with flattering motives or funny moments, nor currently makes he it easier for him/her, instead he invites to lose himself/herself in and to reflect on what he/she sees, while he/she himself/herself also ponders on how he/she would look at what surrounds him/her. Contrary to his earlier works, by now he moves off the capital setting out on a long touring round the country” you can read in the Travel Book of the Modern Age.
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György Szegő visited French photo-artist Lucien Clergue’s exhibition in Vienna. In conclusion to his report Camargue’s secret, he quotes the photographer himself: “The term photography means writing with light (…). I fear that improving technologies might take away the manual part from photographing; it is too easy to make a picture by means of electronics. I am still working with silver both for black and white and colour pictures, and day by day I am enjoying it.”
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Zsuzsanna Kemenesi presents Barbara Yoshida’s Moonlight pictures: “Barbara makes her photos in the night in the light of the Moon, solely in the light of the Moon. The quality of this is different of that of the sunlight. She avoids artificial lighting in her work. Barbara Yoshida maintains, that because of its special kind, moonlight deserves the honour to be used in its most simple form.”
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Zsolt Péter Barta went to the Bazaar of Photography i.e. he visited Paris Photo 2008 where, as he reports, 83 galleries and 21 publishers from 17 countries offered the art of photography. “The fair compares well with a minor photo history course. One can get an idea of photographing from the very beginning of the history of photography to the most advanced digital photographing, on top of it through famous or less famous but original works. The prominent international event advertises itself in its sub-title as the ‘Fair of the 19th century, modern and contemporary photography’, indicating that by now into what large periods is photography divided when reviewing it as a whole. The real situation is very similar: I could hardly mention any segment of photo art that would not have been represented (at the show).”
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The project of Ingrid Book and Karin Hedén living in Norway, exhibited in Salzburg “explores the reality of Scheibbs, a town-like village in Lower Aust-ria with a population of 5000, from its medieval legends to its oral history of the recent past, but their method is based on ethnologists’ and geographers’ researches as well as on the documents of social news and police reports” – György Szeg? notes in his report Unfounded window stories of Scheibbs. n
In In Gods footsteps Virág Böröczfy interviews Antonio Briceno. “I have dealt a lot with the issue of the way of painting saints – says Bricno – and it was then that I became fascinated by the diversity of depicting saint and mythological portraits in various cultures. (…) Thus I decided to prepare the portraits of those figures – gods, goddesses, and mythological personalities - regarded saints by the communities, who have not yet been depicted visually.”
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How the FRAC Lorraine has not been made a photo museum? And why should we be upset about it? is the title of Zsófia Somogyi’s article in which she discusses the matter of the museum of contemporary art in Metz, Lorraine county, France. The network of FRAC was established in the early eighties in the French counties by the French government in order to put an end to the hegemony of Paris in contemporary arts, and to give the public access to the current cultural properties. Currently the FRAC Lorraine collection contains about 600 works of 230 artists.
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The Mecsek Photo Club turned 50 years old. The illustrious anniversary was commemorated in books, exhibitions and in the framework of a festive general meeting. “The professional tolerance of the Mecsek Photo Club, its sentimentality hidden in its almost friendly atmosphere and the low speed of reaction of its charming provincialism all are reflected in the works. This atmosphere has preserved such a feasible world in which not only events but also processes may be guessed. The unceasing presence, the will power of responsible persons is voluntarily readiness, in which the success of good and the endurance of evil have remained circumstances having an effect mostly locally” the author, Tamás Aknai points out.
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After his Motorcyclists pictures series Endre Schwanner (permanent author and correspondent of Fotóm?vészet) launched a new series, in which he calls to mind the memory of one-time photo clubs by means of photos most of them never made public. His aim – he notes – is to present the every days of Hungarian photographic life in the sixties and seventies, as he had seen it through his camera lens. Klára Szarka wrote the preface to the series.
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Ferenc Markovics, editor of Lights and facts, a book presenting the members of the Association of Hungarian Photo Artists, discloses that contrary to what is maintained in the book, Two photo-artists called István Svéd lived at the same time: Étienne Sved born István Süsz (1914–1996), Stefan Sved Magyarized his name from Seidner to Sved (1924–2000) who had first emigrated to Sweden, and eventually passed away in Israel.
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In Auctions, accounts, Zoltán Fejér maintains that he has found proof also supported by figures and amounts that well-to-do, investment-seeking buyers are interested in works available on the photo antiquities market.
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Adolphe Braun (1811–1877) was the first prominent French distributor of photographic reproductions of world-famous artistic works. He was specialized in immortalizing the collections of the museums of Europe, and acquired right to reproduce the paintings and drawings of the Louvre. The importance of his company is proved by the fact that he used to employ hundred workers at the same time. Zsuzsa Farkas’ paper deals with the Hungarian connections of the Braun Company.
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Has ever any photograph been made of the greatest Hungarian man? – Emőke Tomsics asks in her article Széchenyi’s eyes. “The prominent personality of Hungarian history died in April 1860, and by that time technolo-gical facilities were already accessible, thus even traded visit cards with his portrait could have been preserved for the succeeding generations. No photograph of Széchenyi has, however, been made public up to the present, nor iconographies contain any photo of him.” Yet a photograph on which Hans Gasser sculptor sculptures the Count’s portrait in Döbling, has been found…
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The title of the latest part of József Rák’s series DigiTrend is the CMOS in the forefront dealing with image sensor chips. CMOS is a mosaic word for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor.
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New albums on Péter Timár’s Bookshelf: Magyar Távirati Iroda Zrt (Hungarian News Agency Ltd. Co.): Kor-képek (Era pictures) 1948–1955; Recent acquisitions of the Hungarian National Museum, III. Selection of the col- lection of the Historical Photographic Archive; István Tóth: Cegléd, Hungary, and Prominent Photo Artist of the Century, István Tóth; Balázs Telek: Ana- morph; Developing. 50 years of the Mecsek Photo Club, 1957–2007; Péter Gyukics, Péter Hajós, Ernő Tóth, Dr,: Along bridges on the Tisza.
