The images of Brassaï, André Kertesz, Robert Capa, Lázslo Moholy-Nagy and Márton Munkácsi are the most valuable and precious treasures of the Hungarian Museum of Photography. The selection for the Photon Gallery presents five by five internationally known photos from five Hungarian artists, who were all revolutionary and innovative in their own time and they remain powerful several decades later. The Fotomuseum from Kecskemét is collecting mostly Hungarian photographs but also those having universal value. Its collection contains over one million ob­jects (original photographs, negatives, cameras…) from the early times of photography till recent days; the oldest daguerreotype was made in 1840. The Hungarian collection aims to be as exhaustive as possible, equally valuating the works of those, who became famous abroad and outstanding photogra­phers who remained in Hungary such as Jozsef Pécsi, Rudolf Balogh, Károly Escher, Olga Máté and others. The Fotomuseum also preserves works from all significant contemporary photographers.

Brassaï [Gyula Halász] (Brassó [Brasov], 9 September 1899 – Paris, 7 July 1984)

The artist, a native of Brassó (now Brasov, Romania), left Hungary for Berlin as a young man. He worked as a journalist and enrolled in a course at the Kunstgewerbschule. In 1923 he moved to Paris, where he lived until his death. On his arrival in Paris he showed no interest in photography. In 1925, a friend introduced him to the artwork of Atget. He was so taken by the pictures that he always considered the Parisian photographer to be an exemplar. In 1926 he became acquainted with André Kertész, whom he accompanied on his photographic trips. Kertész taught him the basics of photography, but it was only in 1929 that Brassaï began taking general photographs. His Paris de nuit album (1931) attained international success. In his heart he always wanted to be an artist; this explains his use of the pseudonym Brassaï, which he used for his photographic work, while the name Halász was used for his paintings, which he hoped would establish his name for ever. In 1932, he published in the surrealist magazine Minotaure; it was then that he became befriended with Picasso. From 1935 until 1947, Brassaï worked for the agency RAPHO. For several decades after 1937, he worked for Harper’s Bazaar. In addition to numerous awards and prizes, in 1976 he received the French Order of Merit in recognition of his work.

Capa, Robert [Endre Ernő Friedmann] (Budapest, 22 October 1913 – Thai Binh, 25 May 1954)

Based on the still valid words of Stefan Lorant, Capa is the world’s greatest war photographer. One of Capa’s famous remarks was: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” Having been influenced by Kassák, Capa became interested in journalism a year before his high school graduation. He began taking photographs in 1930. In the same year, he was arrested after taking part in a left-wing demonstration. He then had to leave the country. His first stop abroad was Berlin, where he became a student at the German Political College. Short of money, he took on a job in the darkroom of the Dephot photo agency. He was also given an assignment: to take a photograph of Trotsky at the socialist congress in Copenhagen. In 1933 he moved to Paris, where he tried his luck with a change of name. In 1936 he travelled to Spain, having been commissioned by Regards to photograph the revolution. His photograph The falling soldier brought him recognition and has since become a photographic classic. Thereafter Capa never really stopped; he travelled to wherever there was an armed conflict. During World War II he took photographs in England, North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. On D-Day he accompanied the first U.S. troops to land on Omaha Beach. In 1947, he joined forces with David Seymour, Henri Cartier Bresson, and George Rodger to found Magnum Photos. In 1954, he was sent by Life to photograph the conflict in Indochina; he stepped on a landmine near Thai Binh and was fatally wounded.

Kertész, André [Andor Kertész] (Budapest, 2 July 1894 – New York, 28 September 1985)

He graduated from a commercial high school in 1912 and then went to work at the Budapest Stock Exchange. He used his first salary to buy an ICA box camera, becoming an autodidact photographer. In late 1914 he was enlisted; he took a Voigtländer in his pocket to the front. It was during the war that he took his first two pictures to be published in magazines. In 1927, he moved to Paris, exchanging the life of a Hungarian clerk for that of a Parisian artist. It was here that he achieved success with his profoundly humanist, subjective and unique style – a style that has rendered him one of the greatest photo-artists of all time. As Henri Cartier-Bresson said: “Whatever we have done, Kertész did first.” As a Hungarian émigré in Paris, Kertész worked for magazines such as Vu, Sunday Times (London), Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, and Uhu. He encouraged both Brassaï and Robert Capa to try their hand at photography. Kertész’s first exhibition was held in Paris in the Sacre du Printemps Gallery in 1927. In 1936, he travelled to America at the behest of Keystone Studios. He intended to stay just a few months, but the outbreak of war kept him there. From 1937 until 1949 he worked as a freelance photographer, receiving assignments from Look, Harper’s Bazaar, and Vogue. In 1944 he became a U.S. citizen. From 1963 until his death, he devoted himself to sorting out and publishing his life’s work, while continuing to take photographs. His work became highly acclaimed and he received many awards.

Moholy-Nagy, László (Bácsborsód, 20 July 1895 – Chicago, 24 November 1946)

After graduating from high school in Szeged, László Moholy-Nagy moved to Budapest where he enrolled as a student of law. Following the outbreak of war, he became a soldier in 1915 and was seriously wounded in battle. It was during his stay at the military hospital that he began to draw and paint. In 1919 he was forced to flee to Austria, where he became acquainted with Kassák. This contact proved to be decisive for his life’s future course. With Kassák’s recommendation, he joined the Bauhaus in Germany. In Berlin, he met his first wife Lucia Schultz, from whom he learnt the techniques of photography. Aged twenty-six, he was asked by Gropius to teach at the Bauhaus; he helped to develop the theoretical programmes and image of the school. With his extensive photographic experience and theoretical knowledge, Moholy showed how it was possible to go beyond narrower compositions and use other means (such as light, shadow, space, mass, colour, and drawing) to expose new content. He was one of the first photographers to experiment with the photogram. He regarded the conscious application of photo-montage as a means of portraying reality in a novel manner. With the rise of fascism in Germany, he moved abroad. In 1937, he settled in Chicago (once again at the invitation of Gropius), where he helped to establish the New Bauhaus. When the New Bauhaus was dissolved, he established his own School of Design, which became the College of Design in 1944. He led the college until his premature death.

Munkácsi, Martin [Márton Munkácsi, Márton Mermelstein] (Kolozsvár, 18 May 1896 – New York, 13 July 1963)

One of the world-famous Hungarian photographers and the founder of a fashion photography genre – which reached its zenith in the work of Avedon. He left the family home – still as Márton Mermelstein – when he was sixteen. He worked as a painter and decorator, but he also wrote poetry and tried his hand at amateur drama. He then became a journalist, illustrating his articles with his own photographs. At the age of eighteen, he was already publishing articles on a regular basis. As a sport photographer he attempted to produce novel and unusual compositions. Sometimes he would even climb onto a roof or up a fire ladder to ensure that his pictures were out of the ordinary. In 1928, he moved to Berlin. Having joined Ullstein Verlag, he became a fast-moving photojournalist who was always there when something happened. He photographed Zeppelin’s airship and produced portraits of Lenni Riefenstahl and Kemal Atatürk. While still in Hungary, he formulated his ideas about photojournalism: “To see within a thousandth of a second the things that indifferent people blindly pass by – this is the theory of the photo reportage. And the things we see within this thousandth of a second, we should then photograph during the next thousandth of a second – this is the practical side of the photo reportage.” In 1934, in the face of growing fascism, Munkácsi emigrated to the United States, where he soon became New York’s highest-paid photojournalist. His fashion photography for Harper’s Bazaar, Fortune, and Vogue rendered him the founder of a new style: it was he who brought motion and dynamism to this genre. John Esten referred to this style as the “Munkácsi movement”. He died of a heart attack while watching a football match.
Exhibition opening: 14 June 2011 at 8:00 PM, from 15 June until 22 July 2011.