Grieving Roma by Béla Szandelszky, Grand winner of the 2009 Hungarian Press Photography Awards
The
2009 Hungarian Press Photography Awards have been announced. The overall winner is a stunning series of Roma (Gypsy) grieving by the Hungarian photographer
Béla Szandelszky. My favorite is the one of three woman grieving. The site is in Hungarian but Google translate does a
reasonable job (to English anyway). And of course there is the inevitable Flash navigation to come to grips with. This means it is very hard to link to the actual photos themselves, but perhaps the point. Nonetheless this form of navigation is an irritant.
All the photos demonstrate that the rich tradition of Hungarian photography that includes André Kertész, Robert Capa, László Moholy-Nagy and Marton Munkácsi to name but a few of the greatest photographers of last century, is very much alive and well.
Indeed the Szandelszky series marks almost a century of Hungarian ethno-photography when Kertész began photographing local villages, Roma and Hungarian village, and urban, life in general.
The Blind Violinst - Abony. Photo by André Kertész taken in 1921 in the village of Abony in central Hungary
Another wonderful photo from Kikasz on Flickr. It is of the great Hungarian photographer, Robert Capa. There is an exhibition of his works currently been shown in Budapest. What I like about this photo is the way it shows the jaunty, roguish nature of Capa. The angle seems to accentuate this and draws to his face, creating a feeling of intimacy. I also like the use of the hands. We know there is a person holding the publication, yet they are off stage, mysterious almost. It reminds of that other great Hungarian photographer, Kertesz, and his photo, “Elizabeth and I” in which his hand is shown resting on Elizabeth’s shoulder. [See also my post on Kertesz]
Kikasz’s photo here works so well in black and white – always the test of a good photo.
