After returning to Hungary in 1982, he became one of the key figures in Hungarian folk music and his photographs have brightened CD covers, magazine pages and books ever since. His photo album entitled Erdélyi zenészek (Musicians of Transylvania) is considered an eternal pantheon of the region’s musicians. The secret of his characteristic portraits lies in his ability to forge close relationships.

“The exposure is made on the brain, the soul and the heart,” he believes. “My great task in life is to record for myself, my children and posterity a world that even I was only able to admire, rather than participate in, as I was born too late. But I want the generations to follow me to witness some of it too.”

For this exhibition as part of A Celebration of Folk Music, Béla Kása allows a glimpse into the everyday lives of Transylvanian musicians. Sometimes we see joyful revellers at weddings and christenings, on other occasions – when the time for mourning comes – moving stills of a funeral vigil or a burial. His photography has also decorated the Roma tent at the Sziget Festival for years, and the archive of the Budapest Museum of Ethnography contains 200 of his images.

On display until 30 January
Venue: Palace of Arts, Banner Square
Address: 1095 Budapest, Komor Marcell utca 1.

Source: Palace of Arts