SUMMARY– 2018/1

Rita Somosi: There's more of what we share, what connects us / Social changes and changing societies in non-oeuvre exhibitions of Péter Korniss
The Hungarian National Gallery has undertaken to give an overview of the ouevre of Péter Korniss in an oeuvre exhibition. Rita Somosi's analysis of the exhibition addresses the progression of the interests and the visual world of Péter Korniss, and the reactions to contemporary social movements side by side. She gives a detailed analysis of the various exhibition units, their place in the oeuvre, and their connections to other eras. Rita Somosi's article, beside the big exhibition organised chronologically, also addresses a smaller Kornis exhibition organised in the Várfok Gallery. This exhibition was set up on the basis of vastly different considerations, using different pictures. This is an important warning against the simplification of the oeuvre.

Péter Tímár: Robert Frank in the Albertina
The "Americans" series of Robert Frank was exhibited for the public in the Albertina. His work and approach are analysed in detail by Péter Tímár. He not only analyses the "Americans" series, but gives an overview of Robert Frank's entire career. Within the text, Péter Tímár gives special attention to Frank's approach that puts the essay in the centre, and contrasts it to the "window and mirror" conceptual pair of Sarkowsky that he established in relation to photography. The part that compares Frank's work with the circumstances and ideology of the socialist realism era can be especially interesting to us. In the second half of the article the author overviews the later works of Frank as well, and also examines the changes in Frank's relationship to the texts.

Sándor Hornyik: Brick factory posthumanism / On the "Human" series of Gábor Arion Kudász
The "Human" series of Gábor Arion Kudász won the Robert Capa Photography Grand Prize in 2015. Sándor Hornyik's article analyses the project that is centred around the brick, brick production, its connection to human beings and the symbolism of the brick, in a wider international context. First he positions the "Human" project in comparison to the previous series of Kudász, and then contrasts them to the work of Salgado and Burtynsky. Through the analysis of the pictures he demonstrates their relatedness to some of the works of Moholy-Nagy, Renger-Patzsch and Kepes, and in certain cases to the approach of the artists. He elaborates on the social and economical relevance of the approach and of the project as well, contrasted to the international context of contemporary thinkers. The article demonstrates clearly how the series of Kudász reflects on today's industrial society and the activities of its participants, and how the photographer managed to subtly include his personal opinion in the pictures and in the captions, while focusing on the relationships between human proportions and the brick.

Szilvia Mucsy: The silence of devastation - A conversation with Paulo Nozolino Portuguese photographer
Paolo Nozolino is a prominent figure in Portuguese photography. Szilvia Mucsy's interview with him was made in relation to his exhibition for the Budapest Photo Festival. Nozolino worked in Arabic countries and in Europe for twelve years. His harsh, somber, autonomous visual world is woven through with an exceptionally strong sense of social responsibility and a sensitivity to quiet dramas. The interview reveals a taste of Nozolino's characteristically gaunt and concentrated approach.

Béla Albertini: A flawed plan of a photo book
Hungarian photo culture in the early 1920s was not viable enough in the financial conditions that existed after the lost world war, two revolutions, and the Treaty of Trianon. Due to this fact on the one hand, and thanks to earlier ties with Austrian photographic life on the other hand, the elite of Hungarian photography in their efforts for advancement found orientations first of all in Vienna. This is why the series of photo books entitled the Masters of Artistic Photography published by the Viennese Dentoni publishing house was received with great acclaim in Budapest. Leading Hungarian photographers were delighted when Dentoni expressed willingness to present photos by Hungarian artists in this series.

Anne Kotzan: Life is theatre / The photographs of Gilbert Garcin
Gilbert Garcin, the retired director of a lamp factory has been building his abstract-surrealistic world for more than twenty years. Anne Kotzan's article introduces the reader to the personal world of Garcin, presents the circumstances in which the pictures were made, and Garcin's relationship to photography as well. Gilbert Garcin is both playful and poetic. He takes great joy in using collage and montage, and appears in most of his photographs - made with pre-computer age tools - which has special importance from the viewer's perspective. The article points out the fact that Garcin, due to his position, is able to ask significant questions consciously and courageously.

Zsófia Rechnitzer: "... some of the works in his legacy are works of art." A report on the (international) representation of Tibor Hajas.
Elements of Tibor Hajas's oeuvre are presented to the public with increasing frequency, such as last year at an exhibition dedicated to him at the Venice Biennale. Zsófia Rechnither's article has collected the most important elements of the history of the perception of Hajas. Recording the work of Tibor Hajas in the form of photographic works of his performances raises numerous difficult questions. The article also gives a detailed account of the fate of the Hajas works since 2000, of the institutions and galleries handling them, and of the Hungarian and international exhibitions shaping their perception.

Andrea Romero-Lécrivain: The Kursala hall, an exhibition space in Andalusia
The University of Cadiz is not the biggest university in Spain, and yet, the author give an account of a successful photographic project initiated by locals for young Spanish photographers. Each year, six young photographers are given the opportunity to present their works at the exhibitions organised by Jesús Mico. This in itself may not be of special interest, however, an important element of the concept established is that they have to create the photography books that accompany the exhibitions together as well. As of now, they have published over fifty books. Taking part in the concept thus also means that after the exhibition the photographers invited can progress in their career with their own photography book in their hands.

Zsuzsanna Komjáthy: Tame or wild / Path seeking and self-reflexivity in the years after the pixel revolution - MyMuseum at the Art Market
Zsuzsanna Komjáthy's article calls attention to a phenomenon that emerged hand-in-hand with digital imaging, through the works of the artists of MyMuseum. These pictures work differently in terms of perception, and require a way of reading that is different from what is needed for traditional photography pieces. They don't primarily depict any more, rather, they constitute a part of reality themselves, and this shift in position may cause issues for the viewers. Technology both deconstructs and redefines the conceptual boundaries of the picture. The author first outlines her theoretical considerations and then demonstrates her argument through the works of the artists of the gallery.

Réka Szentirmay: The best of photography - Haute Photographie Rotterdam 2018
The Haute Photographie fair in Rotterdam is a smaller one, but it is nonetheless unique in that only a dozen selected galeries and a group of young Dutch photographers are invited. Réka Szentirmay reports on this fair, a gathering of the classics and the contemporaries.

Béla Albertini: To the KLUGER oeuvre
As a reflection on a report on an exhibition held in Budapest in 2017, it seems reasonable to look at a cross section of the wide ranging activities of the press photographer Zoltán Kluger (*Kecskemét, 8 December 1896) in Germany. Kluger published a number of photos in German magazines in full flourish in the late 1920s and early1930s. The Hungarian born photographer was a contemporary of Márton Munkácsi (Kluger was born barely nine months later than world-renowned Munkácsi). Although the photos Kluger published in the press rank him in the second line compared to Munkácsi, his work constitute a part of Hungarian photo culture, and he deserves remembrance as a photographer of a characteristic period.

Zoltán Fejér: Professional movie camera lenses
Zoltán Fejér is here with another article in the field of technical history. He compares five movie camera lenses in his article, which are the following:

- 150mm Symmar
- Voigtländer Apo Lanthar
- 240mm Symmar
- 210mm Xenar
- 105mm Tominon