George Eastman Hall

2009 was the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. Within this framework, European Commission launched the “Imagine a new world” photo competition, which attracted some 5000 photos from 1500 professional and amateur photographers (http://www.imagine2009.eu).

The jury, comprised of international professionals, including Orsolya Kõrösi, Managing Director of the Mai Manó House, awarded the grand prize to a Hungarian photographer, Dániel Halász, while the “Public’s Favourite” award also went to a Hungarian author, Balázs Szabó on the basis of votes given over the internet. The work of two other Hungarian competitors is also shown within the exhibition appearing in a number of European countries: the photographs of Imola Balogh and Attila Nyéki – as, alongside the prize-winners, the jury deemed an additional 28 works deserving of being highlighted from the applications received, and decided to popularise the activity of the authors through acquaintance with a wider audience.

The “Imagine a new world” touring exhibition will be on view at the Hungarian House of Photography for more than one month. Both the published call for the competition and the realised exhibition aim to present the multiplicity of Europe through the medium of photography, and emphasise the importance and power of creativity and imagination – which is one of the fundamental conditions for the increased appreciation of the individual and society, and for the social and economic development of every region.

Common in the winning series is the presence of an attitude based on reality, but one that guides the viewer into an imaginary world. As the notes of a diary, Dániel Halász’s photographs call to mind the human environment, permeated by the past. The high contrast between the blurred and sharp details within them connects to the present and to the future at the same time, so that he lyrically illustrates how certain things disintegrate in our memory, or so to say, “become obscure”, while others remain important and determining. The obviously staged portraits of second-prize winning James Naylor present ideal couples, living the American dream, who, with their undisguisedly artificial smiles, gazing into the future, due precisely to their serenity, arouse misgivings in the viewer, and appeal to our sense of danger concerning standardisation and unconsciousness. Vincent Bitaud, third-place winner of the competition, reveals a world to us where mechanical transport has ceased. The photographer recycles in various ways the ubiquitous automobiles with the aid of digital manipulation; he exchanges concrete for natural materials. These cityscapes that are inconceivable in reality comprise bizarre denials of our everyday routine and mechanical society.

photo: Róbert Kassay