Richárd Széman Docu-mythology   Opening remarks by Zoltán Trencsényi, Journalist. Contributed Joe Fritz on clarinet Curator: Károly Kincses, Photo Museologist Open to the public: 10. December 2009. - 24. January 2010. Every weekdays: 14.00 – 19.00 Weekend: 11.00 – 19.00

Docu-Mythology
(For time has no mercy, Jonathan)

Misunderstood in this way, the lyrics of the Zsuzsa Koncz song became a mystery for me as a child. Words became pictures and pictures became secrets. Perhaps the way I misheard the line was no accident.

A picture drawn with light is always a document. The events, landscapes, houses, the appearance of spaces, portraits, the seemingly simple everyday things, are all pieces of the mosaic of time. The shutter opens, light shines into the depths of the dark box and we save the picture compressing the fleeting moments of our existence onto a piece of paper turning brown. It too will disintegrate in time, but at least we have postponed the inevitable.

When travelling, my eye is always drawn to crumbling plaster, walled-up windows, broken stucco, the hidden and disgraced remains of the past, disappearing like a shadow flickering on the cobblestones. I walk the backstreets like the old man, lost in thought on old photographs, paces the hidden depths of his dark room. Once in a while I come across some strange figure from the past wearing a hat or a handkerchief on his head, swinging a huge umbrella, or pushing a shaky, old bicycle.

Pictures have been gathering around me since my childhood. From the trunk in the attic, from the creaking drawer of granny’s walnut chest and from antique bookshops smelling of the dusty spines, yellowing pages and torn leather covers of books. From time to time, I allow them to meddle with my life.

Last year I reached the age of fifty and I started to play. I conjured up an imaginary golden age of mythological gods with ample moustaches, top hats and canes and goddesses with flower basket hats. Let them wander around among the rickety, moss covered walls, which were freshly plastered when they were in the full bloom of youth and the blind windows, then shining squeaky clean from crumpled newspapers. Let clowns wave their arms in mythological spaces, let the moon smile down on them. Let dragons file past the Milky Way. Let modern Pucks and Bottoms meander in the gardens of our grandfathers. And Oberon, King of the Fairies, will watch over them with a broad smile.

(Richárd Széman, Oct. 2009.)

Széman, Richárd

I was born in Budapest on July 12th, 1958.

I have been taking pictures since 1974, for a long time as a self-taught amateur. In 1993 I graduated from the photojournalism course of the György Bálint School of Journalism.

Since 1993 I have been a freelance photojournalist working simultaneously for 168 Hours, Hócipõ, Reform, Elite, Füstölgõ and Premier magazines and sometimes for daily newspapers. Apart from photography, I also published some articles on cultural subjects.

For eight years I took advertising pictures and pub photographs for Maláta, ‘the journal of beer literature and pub culture’. I worked freelance for three years for ABN AMRO Bank’s fortnightly internal newspaper. From 1996 to 2001, I worked for Starface Acting and Modelling Agency, then became a member of staff and was head of the agency’s studio till June 2003. I worked for some years for two regional weeklies, which published my writing on culture as well as my photographs. I am currently working for the XVIth district Local History Collection, developing a local digital archive.

From the outset I have constantly photographed street theatre. My pictures have been used to illustrate countless articles, books and web pages on the theatre.

I regularly illustrate the XVIth district Local History booklets and have been their picture editor since 2007. In 2006, local historian, Antal Lantos, chief architect, Miklós Tóth and I published an elegant album entitled Budapest, the architectural world of the XVIth district.

The Hungarian Museum of Photography holds some of my pictures.

I was a member of MÚOSZ (Association of Hungarian Journalists) for several years and am still a member of the Society of Hungarian Photojournalists.