Lecturing activities
As of 2016 I started to assemble lectures about
contemporary photography and began to perform on various events.
contemporary photography and began to perform on various events.
(newer is upper)
I was invited to Camplight as a lecturer for three presentations and to be a mentor. It was a creative camp for young students who are interested in photography on any level. Some of them has a more technical vision, others liked fashion especially and I could even find youngsters curious about photography as an artform.
It was a great feeling and achievement for me to see ten-fifteen pupils listening to me and asking questions after my speech inquiring about their interests in the light of my presentations, and to feel that they truely rely on me and my knowledge in the creation of their individual projects. This arched over the whole time I was with them.
First, I talked about the history of photography and about the way it became art. The second time I focused on the verge of cinematography and photography, because the camp offered a filmmaking course through its eight days, too. The third occasion was the one that got to them the best since it was about personal photography: it requires the least of technical skills, but the most of emotional connection and dedication. They all seemed to understand that photography is not only about a machine that generates the image but about them who take it as well.
Archive
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences Photography Department invited me to give three lectures on contemporary photography in the program of University of Szeged, Spring at the University project. The first occasion was (and always will be) about the history of photography. This is an essential step in order to give firm ground for the presentations coming later. For the second meeting I prepared something that is very much contemporary but not so much considered as art yet. It was the topic of slow photojournalism which started with Magnum Photos and grew out to be an artist practice. The third was about private photography which started a wildfire amongst the audience regarding the question whether it is art or not.
This was the first series of lectures which I initiated. Lucien Hervé Kamera Klub is a photoclub at Hódmezővásárhely which started out as a very promising initiative but sadly became nothing more than a collection of a handful of arguing people by its second birthday.
The form of presentation was rather interesting. Since I wanted to speak about different aspects and practices of photography throughout the five shows, I invited competent partners for each occasion. This was the first time I teamed up with Blanka Nagy, who has been a group co at the time at the university and was deeply interested in the history of photography. After the first lecture's success I felt more confident and invited Máté Dobokay who specializes in the frontiers of photography, particularly in monochrome painting and photo and we gave a really thought provoking show. The third time I tried to focus on a new medium inside photography in which topic Lilla Szántói was my partner who is one of the pioneers of photobook in Hungary. We presented conventional and unusual forms of photobooks and she told about her practice as she not only is a photographer but founded a company called Eskimo Book, too. Came the fourth time and I proceeded to go alone. I spoke about personal photography's history and how it should and should not be considered since me and my partners frequently got the question "if this is art". Of course it wasn't my intention to say whether something is or isn't, rather I tried to give a scheme of perception with what anybody can confidently look at photographs and think about them in their context. By the time the fifth part took place we doubled our viewership and I decided to invite Balázs Bőhm, a friend and former classmate of mine who now studies at the University of Szeged Hungarian and History Teacher department to talk about the connection between photography and Hungarian literature.
At the end of the lecture a very important question came up which I consider as the origo of the whole event series: how can coming generations get better at visual communication and how could (I for one) somebody introduce visual studies into Hungarian school system effectively?
