SUMMARY 2008/3

Fifteen years ago, on 4th July, 1993, died Rudolf Járai Pécsi József laureate photo artist. An interview made by Sándor Bacskai earlier that year presents him. Járai started photographing seriously as a young bank-clerk. After WW II he had worked for Magyar Képszolgálat (Hungarian Photo Agency) managed by László Ráth, for Fotó Kisipari Termel?szövetkezet (Photo Artisants’ Co-operative), then for Magyar Fotó Állami Vállalat (Hungarian Photo State Company) and its legal successor MTI (Hungarian News Agency). Among others his colleagues and friends used to be Ern? Vadas and Tibor Csörgeő; in the interview he talks about their legendary photo walks and the years spent together when working for Magyar Fotó.

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In The absurdity of existence Virág Böröczfy comments on Tibor Zátonyi’s new photos, apropos of the photo artist’s exhibition White shadows: “He is in love with photographing, while working steadily induced by his internal ego, making his results only seldom and just in small drops known to the public and at his own discretion. All this is perhaps related to an introverted meditative personality to whom to present himself and his works is more a necessity then an unconditioned desire.”

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You caught me, there is no story is the title of Zsófia Somogyi’s comment on 1day1photo art blog of Judit Katalin Elek (Budapest), Enikő Hangay (New York) and Lei Benben (Beijing). “1day1photo is first of all the blog of eyes and senses and perception where the momentary recorded scene is important: today it is »the glance to the world«… using this photo to communicate with us and with the other two photo artists, and apparently it is a closer tie than the knowledge of everyday trivialities, facts about the other one.”

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Gábor Pfisztner reports on the degree works of graduating students of the photo faculty at the Moholy-Nagy Art University, namely Miklós Ambrus, Barbara Antal, Réka Dobos, Tamás Egry, József Keresztes-Nagy, Ágnes Éva Molnár, Rita Edit Perényi, Gáspár Téri, Helga Vlahovics.

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“Children’s vision has not been spoilt by the media. They were invited to try to tell the story of the everyday life in pictures… And when the films arrived from the Nuba-mountains in Sudan, the Brazilian Amazonia, the Mustang valley in Nepal, the Trobriand coral islands in Papua Oceania, and the films were developed, a cheerful flood of eight thousand smiling children photos unfolded itself before the staff” György Szegő writes in By children’s eyes – great photos of small natives.

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Klára Szarka reviews changes in photo book publishing since the change of the (political) system, interviewing among others Mihály Gera editor (Fotó, Az év fotói, Fényképtár etc.), Ottó Kaiser (Alexandra Publishing House) and Attila P?cze (Vintage Galéria). “A great variety of survival, existence strategies have been developed in the field of Hungarian photo culture and book publishing. Opinions, viewpoints, conclusions of the interviewees are varied, and yet thought-provoking.

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Gábor Pfisztner presents Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide winner of the Hasselblad life’s work award 2008 to the Readers: “Basically all of her photos are of herself, as well as of what the environment and the culture she is living in, means to her, the clear form of which she could find in the medium of ancient Indian world adapted to the present world.”

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In “A Present from Denmark” Katalin Jalsovszky reports on how Danish press photographer Vagn Hansen’s photos he had made in 1956 in Budapest, ended up in the Photo Gallery of the Hungarian National Museum.

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Endre Schwanner’s Social Column continues, and it takes the Reader back to the world of photographers in the sixties: two large-scale events took place in early 1969 in Budapest – 130 Years of Photographing and the debut of Japanese photo industry in Hungary.

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Béla Tarczai recalls an event that happened fifty years ago: winners of a talent contest organized by Magyar Fotóm?vészek Szövetsége (Association of Hungarian Photo Artists) – the author of the article included – could attend a course by lecturers like Rudolf Járai, Kata Kálmán, Marian Reismann, Ernő Vadas.

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Júlia Papp wrote a study on Roger Fenton pioneer of British and European photographing, the pleasant apropos of it is that twelve original (vintage) Fenton photos – among them copies not to be found in other collections – were found in the Budapest University Library.

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The subject of Ilona Balog Stemler’s article is the photographers of photos still existing as a legacy of photographing training over the period of 1914 to1929 in the one-time Iparrajziskola (school of industrial design) today known as Képző- és Iparművészeti Szakközépiskola (Vocational Secondary School of Arts and Applied Arts). The author tries to find out what has happened to the one-time students.

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In Fish-eye lenses: theory and practice Zoltán Fejér deals with those lenses suitable to make very peculiar photos. After a short review of Hypergon, Hill’s Cloud Camera, Nikon Fish Eye Camera, the author gives a detailed account of his own experience with Fish Eye lenses.

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Chapters of Attila Montvai’s technical article – Zero or nothing – i.e. binary reduplication of the world. Reunification of the two cerebral hemispheres – are: Numerical spectacle creation; Mass popularization of digital photography; Hardware hierarchy, i.e. purchasable abilities; Devaluation of visual news value – the blog invasion; Collapse of the private sphere – the global Big Brother; Real virtuality – re-unification of the two cerebral hemispheres.

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New albums on Péter Timár’s Bookshelf: Sándor Dobos: Mediterranean tales; Spirit and body; by the eyes of the most prominent masters of photography, from Kertész to Mapplethorpe (with Péter Baki’s study); János Eifert: Nude photography; In retrospect, 1981 to 2005, twenty-five years of Hungarian press photography; Brassa?. An Illustrated Biography; Magnum Football; David Lachapelle: Hotel Lachapelle and Heaven to Hell.