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One of the most thrilling moments of any film shoot is when the director calls out: Action! (Felvétel!). This command signals both the beginning of the world of motion pictures and the exposure of the camera’s frame. The title thus carries a dual meaning: it refers simultaneously to film production and to photography, two fields that have been inextricably linked within Hungarian cultural history over the past 125 years. Still and set photography are the invisible yet indispensable companions of film history; they served as advertisements for the films, documented the production process, and often possessed independent artistic value. These photographs preserve the atmosphere of the shoots, the actors' performances, and the process of filmmaking—even capturing moments that never appeared on screen but remain an inseparable part of the history of Hungarian cinema. This is particularly true of the pre-digital era, when photographers had to capture the visual essence almost silently, defying technical limitations.

Still photographs were originally created to entice audiences, but today they have become shared treasures of film history and photographic art. A well-composed shot is capable of condensing the film’s atmosphere, encapsulating drama, emotion, and story into a single frame. Set photography, meanwhile, offers a glimpse not only into the scenes themselves but also into the entire production process: the concentrated focus of the actors, the life of the crew, and the physical and intellectual labor behind set construction and filmmaking. These images reveal the invisible yet essential moments of the birth of a motion picture, where the photographer’s sensitive eye often captured reality with artistic force.

The exhibition Action! consists of two parts. On the first floor, still and set photography from eight iconic Hungarian films evoke memorable eras of cinema: the images of the undeservedly overshadowed but now rediscovered Teréz Schandl from Merry-Go-Round (Körhinta, 1955); Miklós Gáspár’s photographs of Sound Eroticism (Egészséges erotika, 1985); the work of Tibor Inkey from the production of The Lost Talisman (Egri csillagok, 1968); Alice Inkey’s shots from behind the scenes of The Pagan Madonna (A Pogány Madonna, 1980) and That Lovely Green Grass (Égigérő fű, 1979); Ferenc Markovics’s sensitive images from the world of Love (Szerelem, 1970); and Sándor Domonkos’s photographs from the shoot of The Witness (A tanú, 1969). These photographs are not merely documents: with their independent visual worlds, staging, interplay of light and shadow, and compositional solutions, they enrich important chapters in the history of Hungarian photography.

The exhibition on the second floor offers a broader perspective: it pays tribute to the Hungarian still photography profession, which dates back as far as Hungarian cinema itself. Spanning from the early days to the present, this selection showcases the unparalleled richness of Hungarian film photographers’ bodies of work through nearly ninety stills and behind-the-scenes photos that have never before been seen by the general public.

Among the exhibited images, one finds both rarely seen documents and well-known visual topoi that live on in the collective memory of generations. The exhibition Action! thus simultaneously celebrates the inception of film and the birth of still and set photography—the meeting of two media that have been shaping Hungarian visual culture for 125 years. Their shared history—from the collection of the National Film Institute – Film Archive—is now being mapped out comprehensively for the first time in the halls of the Mai Manó House.

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Suggested time to visit the exhibition: 30‒50 min.
Mai Manó House is not barrier-free.

Please note that audio and video recordings may be made on our events, from which Mai Manó House may use extracts to promote the institution's programmes.

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