2018 – Still Life

Still Life. Contemporary Hungarian Photography

Budapest Photo Festival traditionally invites photographers to think and create in a classical photographic genre – presenting the attitudes of contemporary Hungarian photographers. With our photo competition Still life, we searched for contemporary reflexions on Still life.

Eszter Herczeg: Fathers

From the nearly 300 applications that arrived for our open call, our curators ( Rita Somosi and Klára Szarka) selected the exhibitors of our Still life exhibition. Among the exhibitiors, numerous tendencies and generation of the contemporary Hungarian photography are represented, presenting the richness of Hungarian photography and the exciting novelties of the genre of Still life with a century-long past in the fields of fine arts.

In the course of the evolution of the genre of Still life, a long road led from the back of panel paintings to becoming a status symbol of citizenry and independent field. The novel sensitivity towards nature was a key moment : the artists sometimes approached the theme with a minutely detailed, other times with a vision-simplifying attitude and compostions. Still life besides the realistic and detailed reflection enabled symbolic references adding a hidden content to the compositions. The expressions of dead nature ( natura morta) or still life reflect the aspects of theme’s broad inteerpretation. In our exhibition we observe the correspondencies of the altering significations based on iconographical types of classical still lifes, tbe possibilites of narrative reading and the visual mapping of subjective and objective approaches.

Still life exhibition is realized in the framework of Budapest Spring Festival and in the cooperation of Budapest Photo Festival and Kiscelli Museum.

Artists:

Apati Tóth Sándor, Balázs Zsolt, Balla Demeter, Bécsi Imre, Biró Dávid, Bohus Réka, Bokor Krisztián, Chochol Károly, Czimbal Gyula, Derzsi Mátyás, Diósi Máté, Érdi Róbert, Flanek Péter, Fodor Dániel János, Fuchs Lehel, Gáti György,, Hamarits Zsolt, Herczeg Eszter, Herendi Péter, Hitre Imola, Hodosy Enikő, Horváth Péter, Hupján Attila, Icsu Renáta, Kállai Márton, Keleti Éva, Kerekes Emőke, Kiss Tanne István, Kiss-Kuntler Árpád, Kocsis Krisztina, Kusnyár Eveline, Liszkay Lilla, Martinkó Márk, Mészáros László, Mikes-Devich Réka, Molnár Anna, Opitz Tomas, Papp Eszter, Regős Benedek, Sándor Emese, Sivák Zsófia, Szabó Maya, Szalóki Ági, Szatmári Gergely, Szemenyei Bianka, Szilágyi Lenke, Urbán Ádám, Vajda János, Vékás Magdolna, Zagyvai Sári