Fine, Thanks!
Szabolcs Barakonyi
Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center
Text by László Szily
Hardcover
34 pages
235 x 200 mm
2016
ISBN 9786158044042
The title of my book is “Fine, thanks,” which is obviously an answer. An answer to the question: “How are you feeling, Hungary?” After the transition of 1990 and during the short-lived liberal-democratic intermezzo, the corresponding laws were once again made more austere as a consequence of which spontaneous street photography has become practically impossible once again. So the opportunities for someone who would like to answer the above question in terms of pictures are highly limited. It still remains legal to take pictures of faces at public events. Public events are typically organised so as to make it possible for a group of people to demonstrate their tradition and rituals to a wider audience. The hidden obscene aspect of such events is the contradiction between the organiser’s intentions and the audience’s spontaneous reaction to it. The organisers always want to impose an official narrative on the audience but the latter tends to resist and in this discrepancy between their respective interpretations reality comes to the surface. The audience resists the official story and finally we may learn something completely different about the nature of the event than the organiser wanted us to see.
(source: https://barakonyi.com/index.php/fine-thanks/)
About the Artist
Szabolcs Barakonyi was born in 1976. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Young Photo Artists’ Studio in Hungary. Between 2003 and 2006 he was the recipient of Pécsi József scholarship. In 2006 he won the Lucien Hervé and Rodolf Hervé Grant, and in 2007 at the Rencontres d’Arles festival he was presented with the Photo Folio Gallery & Review Laureate, and in 2011 he was awarded the National Cultural Fund of Hungary André Kertész Grant, and in 2015 he was finalist at Warsaw Photo Days.
barakonyi.com
(source: https://barakonyi.com/index.php/bio/)
About the Publisher
The Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center was opened in Budapest in December 2013. Among the tasks of the new visual institute are the organisation of national and international exhibitions; the foundation of a prestigious photography award; the presentation of national and international photographers and photography workshops. Activities of the institution also include foreign study tours, public discussions, lectures, thematic film screenings, and performances, along with events of other art disciplines. Established in the centennial year of Robert Capa’s birth, the Center supports its operational, functional, and program costs from state subsidies, grants, and its own income.
capacenter.hu
(source: https://capacenter.hu/en/company/)
