SUMMARY – 2014/3.
Vol. 2014/3 of Fotóművészet begins with an interview with Ágnes Eperjesi, artist, book designer and university lecturer, made by Sándor Bacskai: “When I took the entrance examination to the College of Applied Arts, at that time there was no photographer faculty at the College. I registered as student on the graphic art – typography faculty, and when after the one-year basic training, I again had to apply to the other faculties, I chose the newly started photography faculty. I had never made photos before, on top of it I was uneasy with the graphic faculty, on the whole, I am much more interested in technical subjects, all in all the photographic faculty seemed to me to be completely satisfactory. I loved typography; therefore, I kept that subject, and even later photo – typo turned out to be an excellent completing.”
In The magic-relieved chamber of miracles Gábor Pfisztner reports on Gábor Kudász’s exhibition – Arion Memorabilia: “The act of photographing makes possible not only to fix and to keep something but it also implies the possibility of changing the situation left behind, of breaking up the context, of changing the meaning and the significance. Sometimes just one object, rarely a collection of objects is visible in front of a plain white background, taking it out of the previous relation system, striping it off all former meaning. It frames not a situation randomly found in the viewfinder of the camera. It takes things out, and it transforms them into items, elements which can then be categorised and assorted as photos, hereby creating a new relation system. From this process develop the three phases of »processing«: the memory guide, the memory or memorabilia.”
László Beke writes a report on Jenő Detvay apropos the photo artist’s exhibition in Léva: “The arsenal of the artist’s present strategy comprises the following: written, graphic and image recording, besides the creation of set and composed, or of randomly and accidentally made photos and of the found and recycled photos, the technical intervention in different stages of photographing.” According to the concise characterization of Artportal, Detvay makes “black-and-white photos which he then manipulates. He scratches the surface of the negative, he transforms part of the photo into a drawing, mixed technique is created on a picture.”
In I make photos therefore I think – I think therefore I make photos Zsófia Somogyi reports on the exhibition of students specializing in photographing at the Budapest Communication College: “We have reasonable grounds for believing that thorough wide-ranging training letting plenty of freedom is provided in this college. Namely, the curriculum is varied and thrilling. Among others the selection of topics is varied in regard of the different photo forms, and it is thrilling among others in regard of the technical implementation and commenting on the photos.” Name of some of the exhibitors: László Mester, Milán Rácmolnár, Péter Sárközi, Ádám Béres, Bálint Hirling, Alex Rakó.
György Szegő visited the exhibiton Paparazzi! Photos, stars, artists in the Schirm Kunsthalle: “The word paparazzi was originally used as a proper name: In Fellini’s film – Dolce Vita (1960) – there is a press photographer, named Paparazzo. He is the eponym of the »trade«. Fellini left his name in obscurity – and indeed, this trade knows neither geographic frontiers, nor the frontiers of private trade. There exists more than one version of the etymology of the telling name. The Italian word – pappataci – means a small bold fly, while ragazzo means a young fellow. The new term derives from the combination of the two words. Today by this term is meant a trade that has been created by uninhibited hunger for information, by cameraman’s composition ability and technological knowledge as well as by the tabloid media together, and it is getting more »efficiently« operated.”
György Sümegi comments on József Litwin’s photos made of Lajos Szalay: “Litwin’s true inner motivation and leading spirit to make photos of Szalay is his respect to Szalay’s person and art, his recognition and the understandable curiosity what kind of a person is in fact this »great man« coming home from New York. The photos immortalize the slowly departing artist quieting down in his sociographically most genuine environment, in his last interior. These photos are genuine constats of the last years of the graphic artist of epochal significance, of his life in limited room to move, of the changes in his physical condition.
Zsazsi Chaillet presents Nigerian photographer George Osodi: “The forty years old photographer from Delta state, has learned all ins and outs of photographing in self-taught way after graduating in economics from the University in Lagos. In 1999 he started working for a newspaper in Lagos and since then his star has been rising. Since 2001 he has been working as press photographer for the Associated Press. In 2004 he was prize-winner of Fuji African Photographer of The Year Award, and this year he has been prize-winner of Art of Photography Award. He has always been interested in portrait: aesthetics, pose, fashion and life style on the same photo.”
Etelka Baji wrote an article titled Budapest of Kálmán Szöllősy: “The Historical Photo Archive of the Hungarian National Museum keeps relatively lot of photos made by him; now I would like to present a small collection of these photos to the Readers of Fotóművészet. This collection is assorted strictly on subjective basis; I have collected my most favourite photos in it. These photos commemorate life in Budapest between the two world wars, the atmosphere of this city.”
János Palotai is the author of The photos of János Szász, dr. in black, white and grey: “János Szász, dr., could not become a lawyer he was qualified as in terms of his degree. First he worked as graphic artist, then as decorator. Later from 1960 to 1980 his job was to administer and store the symbols as a clerk at Pécsi Terv. At this designing office he started photographing buildings to document construction work. Besides data recording, his ambition was that his photos could be appreciated as original, autonomous work based on aesthetic values.”
Violence as picture. Discharge from (the prison in) Andrássy út 60., Rolf Müller analyses four photos: “ The photos were found in the photo archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the attached documents, firstly a slip of paper pinned to the four photos, they all have to do with the release of American »embassy employees« arrested in 1948. From the foreign affairs related documents it turns out, that they were expelled because of the MAORT-case from Hungary. The two Americans were kept in detention as »guests« from 18 September 1948 in Andrássy út 60., then on 1 October they were taken to the frontier by two officers of the State Security Authorities and expelled from Hungary.”
Perger Gyula in his paper deals with the photographer career of József Mayrhófer (1810–1897) theologian in Győr, principal of the catholic teachers’ training-college, canon, then prebendal grand provost: “He made mostly portraits. In an album containing his self-portraits there is a coloured talbotipia from 1847, and a portrait of Kálmán Torkos (deputy clerk in Győr) made in 1848 can be found in the Ebenhöch-album. Besides his fellow canons and provosts, he made portraits of practically the whole clergy of the Győr diocese.”
Zoltán Fejér in his article on the history of photo technology, commemorates the 55 year-old Olympus-Pen camera: “1959 is said to be a significant year in the history of Japanese photographic industry. Late spring in that year the 35 mm SLR pentaprism Canonflex of Canon was put on the market, then in early summer it was followed by Nippon Kogaku’s also robust Nikon-F with exchangeable lens. The only 26 year-old Maitani wanted not to copy his competitors, in his phrasing, he wanted to design something that had not existed before, nor could it be found in the assortment of other manufacturers.”
The world is not only about Photoshop! Attila Montvai argues in the second part of his series of articles “The photographic quality cannot be defined just by megapixel numbers, resolution and other measurable characteristics. A good example of it is the case of Eugéne Arget és Robert Capa. Even at that time Atget’s photos were made with »out-of-date« camera and albumin positive process. Capa’s D-day photos obtained their final visual form allegedly due to development failures.”
New albums on Péter Tímár’s Bookshelf: Fausto Giaccone: World of Macondo – Gabriel Gardia Márquez; Joachim Brohm: Typology 1979; Janet Delaney: South of Market.
