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Denes P. Sabo;
He is a concept in Hungarian photography, because what he did for the profession is unparalleled. He was stubborn, persistent and a good organizer, because he made the impossible happen. I think today’s Hungarian photographers are very grateful to him, and the profession has reached such a level of respect – Photographer Péter Korniss told his story to our newspaper at the celebration of the seventieth birthday of photography historian Károly Kincses, held on Thursday evening at the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center. Several outstanding representatives of the industry were present to pay tribute to Károly Kincses, who was an indispensable figure in the Hungarian photography world. He founded institutions such as the Hungarian Photography Foundation, the Hungarian Museum of Photography in Kecskemét and Mai Manó Ház. He also edited hundreds of photography books and organized many exhibitions. In the evening, we learned about his brilliant thirty-five-year career, moderated by journalist Éva Hajdú and accompanied by photographer András Bánkuti, with photos of Kincses.
During the conversation, Kincses first recalled his childhood, when his sister sold her yellow teddy bear in order to use the money to buy a Zorkij camera, but the camera didn’t work, so she bought a Pajtás branded one for Christmas. There was also the topic of learning, Kincses learned to be a skilled car mechanic, then graduated from the ELTE Academy of Arts with a major in folklore, and his first photo-related job was at the Gödöllő Cultural Center. Orsolya Kőrösi, the founding executive director of the Capa Center, who founded the Hungarian Museum of Photography in Kecskemét with colleagues, emphasized one of Kincses’ greatest strengths. At the same time, Kincses also had a good relationship with the media, so people’s perception of Hungarian photography changed. Curator and photo historian Klára Szárka emphasized that they learned from museologists to look at photos differently – as a value, as an artifact. Photographer András Bánkúti remembers that in 1996 he, together with Kincs and Magdolna Kolta as representatives of the Hungarian Photography Foundation and the National Association of Hungarian Journalists, bought the lease of Mai Manó’s former studio building on Nagymező Street in order to hold exhibitions for the general public.
After the discussion, Károly Kincses was interviewed by Népszava about the current situation of Hungarian photography. – The industry is in a state of regression, but we cannot talk about Hungarian photography in isolation, because it is rooted in Hungarian culture, integrated into Hungarian society, which is permeated with a political spirit that I do not like. And the most important purpose of this is to divide people, the country and the world in two. To those who are with them and those who are against them. This thinking slowly permeates all levels of the “funnel”, because cultural life and photographic life are also separated, says the museologist. According to Kincses, as long as decisions are not made according to values and professional criteria, but Hungarian photography is constructed according to who is on which side, nothing will happen here.
– Every art form is very susceptible to external conditions. The question is whether there is money, whether there is will, whether there is a social environment to create and accept the work, whether it is integrated into knowledge. Jinkses said that photography is not included in Hungarian cultural life, so the former remains in its own small field, which is divided into two fields for political reasons. He believes that value-oriented photography can only be realized in small local communities.
Regarding his life’s work, he says that one of his fondest memories is when he was deputy director of the Gödöllő Cultural Center, in charge of the fields of photography and local knowledge, and he combined these two fields to create a historical collection of a photographic village, in which residents of fourteen settlements present their own photographs. – After taking a photograph, it is put into an album, a drawer or framed and hung on the wall so that it cannot be seen by the public. As museum professionals, our job is to present pictures that deserve public attention. “The Fortepan site is doing this now, but I did it thirty years ago,” he recalls. On the other hand, he considers it important that he and his colleagues created the Museum of Photography in Kecskemét, as there was no such museum in Hungary before, so they had no model to follow. They implemented the institution, its structure and collections based on their own knowledge.
We also asked Kincses how digital photography affects the photographic genre. The museologist believes that the real change is not brought about by digital tools, but by artificial intelligence, which no longer requires reality to create an image that can be sold.
How has digitalization developed people’s photographic sense? Kincses believes it is independent of the device. “Everyone has a ballpoint pen, everyone can write, but not everyone can be a writer.”
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