SUMMARY– 2016/4

Vol. 2016/4 of Fotóművészet begins with an interview made by Sándor Bacskai with photo artist Gábor Máté head of department at the Moholy-Nagy Művészeti Egyetem (Moholy-Nagy Art University): “I was not at all up-to-date, I was not trend follower. I love clear photography free from any subsequent intervention. If only because of conceit I did not pay attention to trends, I did not like the idea to have a regard for what’s trendy at the moment in the world, and how I ought to make photos so that an advertising agency would give me an order or a gallery would buy my cool pictures.”

In Balance between the two extremes Rita Somosi reviews Attila Haid’s photos: “The majority of Attila Haid’s pictures are black and white pictures, colours are more embarrassing for him. This angular, abstracting image world is the closest to his minimalist form of expressing. On his landscape photographs you see compositions inclined to abstraction that are embarrassing, intentionally. He tries to alienate us from the concrete scenery, while he integrates classical landscape traditions into his pictures. He shows found scenes, he doesn’t intervene in the scenery, everydayness of the sceneries provides among others the strength of the series.

“It doesn’t happen too often that literature and photograph come across in such a context that poems are written under the inspiration of photos. – points out János Palotai. At the Mari Mahr photo exhibition in Mai Mano Ház one could see a couple of examples through the poems by Jenny Bornholdt and Gregory O’Brien. Although picture-poems were already published in the avant-garde era as negation of the traditional typography, but this time it is not the case, we are talking not about illustrations but about metaphors which replace the missing true while not giving up the possibility of finding it.”          n

In Ambivalent situations Judit Gellér reports on Anna Fabricius’s exhibition “Subject, predicate, not names of secondary importance”: “As far as the contents of the series is concerned it is present and at the same time  imperishable while some are playing with time lines. The photos are indoor still lifes, nature close scenes based on snapshot aesthetics, they appear like side notes or diary excerpts, they rise from the line of every days, while captions under them are dialogue-fragments of exchanging short text messages… Photo from every days, messages from the past”.

In Through the eyes of a through passenger Anna Szilágyi reports on Miklós Mátrai’s photos he made in Asia: “While staying abroad his days are always spent according to the same routine. During the day he is busy doing business, in the night he throws himself with his camera into the nightlife of Chinese towns. During his business trips he makes photos with special linking in other cities, too in Asia. He has a keen interest in and he feels irresistible impulse to take a photo of what he sees. His preferred artistic form, namely the portrait turned out to be most suitable ‘to condense’ the countless fantastic experiences he has had in his life, in a photo.

György Szegő visited Martin Parr’s exhibition in Vienna: “Conclusions visitors of the exhibition would draw from the photos communicating in contemporary image language, not that the British or the Austrians are like that, but that we are like that. Using English humour I would say his colour pictures are – beyond the bizarre subject – unique because he composes a key colour, an inevitable dominant colour matching, colour contrast in the focus and thus the viewer of the photo is unable to be freed from the influence of the photo.

In The whole of the part Károly Kincses writes about László Horváth who lives in France: “Have I earlier written that he has a special talent to cut pictures, to highlight parts in the whole; well, this time I am going »to surpass« myself, because on top of it he has an architect’s eyes even if he hasn’t got this kind of education. He constructs his pictures by means of precise main lines and small fine auxiliary lines. He takes special care to keep the balance of elements, the harmony of colours, he knows and     respects the rules of perspectives, and he pays attention to the fitting of straight, inclined lines and curvatures.

In Lovely girls, lovely dresses, lovely pictures Rita Somosi reports on the Chanel fashion-photo show: “It has become an elegant, timeless professionally designed material, built up mostly relying on classical traditions, trying to balance on the safe borderland in all fields (by selecting the dresses, models, scenes) without any particular risking, instead of unusual setting in, using static, even theatrical poses, classical picture cuttings.”

Anne Kotzan commemorates Hilla Becher (81) passed away in 2015: “»Bernd and Hilla Becher belong to the most distinguished contemporary artists« – Susanne Lange writes in the introduction of the memorial volume published in 2002, when the couple was rewarded with the Erasmus-Prize for their life-work. The Bechers are usually known as couple, and their work is also regarded this way despite that after the death of Bernd in 2007 his wife went on archiving his life-work and photographing alone.”

In his series Gábor Pfisztner tries to analyse the relationship between photograph and contemporary arts. The title of the 3rd part of this series is The form of the medium or the medium of the form… “Therefore, if you want to talk about »photo art« then you ought to be able to define what those characteristics are, what is the uniqueness of photographing (in mental sense). Since photography is a »technical medium«, a technical means, this implies that it is changing, »developing«, transforming, not only the camera but »photographic materials, as well« .Then what is based on which the mediality of photographing and its specifics can be interpreted, which distinguishes it from other »media«”?

The meaningful title of György Cséka’s article is “Selfie or the rule and the burying of pictures. “We are living under the ruling system of digital life. A signal must be given so as others should see and sense it because the presence is existence. I am present if as many as possible, acknowledge it. I am the best, the most successful, and indeed: I exist if I am seen. The law of quantity is that rules. Presence, existence means posting, acknowledgement means liking, sharing. The quickest, the most amusing picture is the coolest.”

Judit Nevelő reports on the photo-artistic selection of the Szőllősi-Nagy–Nemes Collection: By their own admission their collecting photographs, compared to their art collection, was made according to a less conscious conception, as long as in autumn 2004 while preparing for an exhibition using their own collection in the Photo Gallery of the Hungarian Electricity Works they discovered important guidelines coupling their works. One of them was the portrait of an artist mentioned above; the other one can be connected to the man-made work.”

Zsuzsanna Demeter revives snapshots from the past of the Amusement Park: “Photos made of the (so-called) English Park in the forties are part of the life-work of two famous photographers. In 1940 Tibor Inkey who worked as film studio photographer, too, photographed actresses Maria Fekete Tasnády and Rózsi Csikós in the Park. The other pictures made in the forties are photos of the most popular attractions in the Park, such as the funicular, the racing car, the roller-coater, the Ferris wheel, made by István Szendrő.”

Béla Albertini compiled a very well-documented essay on the publishing circumstances of the book Zwölf Aktaufnahme by József Pécsi edited in 1922 in Berlin. “Those flicking through the nude album of the Hungarian photographer can see: Pécsi’s pictures fit in well in the interpretation of photographing in the 1910s and in the early 1920s in Austria and Germany. Therefore, publishing this book should be regarded – in international comparison – not as exceptional but as one fitting in well in a process. Exceptionality means that on album compiling level among Hungarian photographers József Pécsi was the only one able to accomplish it.”

In Pista bácsi (Uncle Steve) Gábor Módos bids farewell to photo artist István Tóth: “His unreserved, warm manner also helped him to get so close to his models, and by means of his professional skill he was able to immortalize those human feeling, characters with which he then piled success upon success all over the world.”

Zoltán Fejér’s photo-historical article presents the Middlemiss wooden-frame camera made in England: “Focussing screen retaining part of the cameras manufactured by British competitors is »suspended« above the base plate; it is retained in its place by locking screws and copper plates secured to the base plate. These driving elements shall be used when moving the focal plane back-and-forth. According to William Middlemiss’s patent the metal stud [rod-stub] built in the base plate is fitted into the bore in the copper plate holding the back plate. According to the inventor, when using normal or telephoto lens, the back plate is fastened better, more securely to the base plate, as usual.”

Excerpt from the third part of Attila Montvai’s series “How many megapixel had Michelangelo’s hammer? Or is photo technology a creator instrument?”: “Neither the last part of this series of articles is meant to provide recipes needed to generate  »artistic values«. Therefore, pictures published here are randomly selected signals in order to refer to the importance of considerations determining own objectives. As a matter of fact this part aims to provide starting points to comprehensive investigation and careful examination of the actual role of photographic technology.”

Three new albums on Péter Tímár’s Bookshelf:  Éva Szombat: Practitioners – Happiness in Practice; Miklós Déri: Arcok/Faces;  Péter Kollányi: Memento (with Péter Nádas’s words).