Something happened in the 1970s: photographers were increasingly given opportunities to exhibit at the Műcsarnok, among them Tamás Féner, Péter Korniss, Róbert Horling, Irén Ács, Edit Molnár and Károly Hemző. This exhibition seeks to evoke Hemző’s legendary exhibition My Encounters, which opened exactly fifty years ago, in 1976, and to place it in dialogue with the visual perspectives of young artists of the 21st century, the winners and finalists of the prize named after Hemző.
Over time, the celebrated sports photographer Károly Hemző became a legendary photojournalist and editor. He later achieved widespread recognition together with his partner and creative collaborator Mari Lajos thanks to their iconic series of trend-setting cookery books, published in millions of copies.
Visitors will gain an insight into the bold and innovative creative and presentation strategies of the 1976 exhibition, brought to light here through processes of research, reconstruction and rediscovery. At the same time, other facets of this rich and diverse oeuvre are also revealed, primarily through the presentation of the artist’s vintage prints, most of which were enlarged by his own hand.
Although Hemző never taught photography formally, he nevertheless influenced subsequent generations. With their works and their role on the Hemző Prize board, the artist’s former colleague and friend András Bánkuti together with Róbert László Bácsi, who represents the generation that followed Bánkuti, connect the world of the 1970s with that of today’s young photographers and Hemző Prize recipients.
The works of the winners of the Károly Hemző Prize, founded in 2013 – András D. Hajdú, Simon Móricz-Sabján, Balázs Mohai, Zsófia Pályi, István Bielik, Sándor Csudai, László Végh, Márton Mónus, Judit Ruprech, Noémi Napsugár Melegh, Bálint Szajki and András Zoltai – as well as those of its finalists, demonstrate that they represent a defining generation in 21st-century Hungarian photography.
Curator: Klára Szarka