He wanted to become a cinematographer, but fortunately, he was not admitted. He learned photography, and found himself in one of the most difficult fields, sports photography. He worked for Honvéd Sport Club, where key members of the Hungarian Golden Team were playing, including Ferenc Puskás himself.

Later, in the famous editorial team of Képes Sport (Sports Illustrated), Hemző’s name became a legend (besides that of Tibor Komlós, László Almási and József Farkas).

In photography circles it is often said that those who can take high-quality sports photos are capable of photographing anything else. Hemző’s activity as a photo reporter, artist and his later work in applied photography are living proof of this.

Obligatory and elected

When Hemző left Képes Sport (Sports Illustrated) in 1967, a new chapter in his career opened at the Hungarian Review. “…it was our job to present the best possible image of Hungary. I always did the obligatory tasks and then I took the one or two pictures for myself that could not have appeared in the paper, which showed how I saw the country. The photographs that reflected my viewpoint.” (From the special issue of Fotóriporter magazine)

Hemző accomplished himself as a photo reporter. He travelled around the country and worked in almost every genre. Besides classic photo reports, he took numerous genre photos, landscapes, portraits and city views. He never got tired of photographing Budapest, and in his pictures he showed the world of horses like no one else could.

He also did ground-breaking work in the Hungarian press as a picture editor. He knew everyone in the profession, and all good materials were published sooner or later in the Hungarian Review during the more than two decades in which he was in charge of the visual appearance of the magazine.

He surrounded himself with talented youngsters. Although he was not a teacher, there were many people who learned a lot from him.

Even though he retired in 1989, he never ceased to be a reporter as long as his physical condition permitted it. He did not even go down to the local grocer’s without his camera.

The change of regime

Hemző had to give up his physically taxing activities as a photo reporter in the mid-70s. But he could not resist the feverish atmosphere of the months of the change of regime, and his passion as a chronicler drove him to document events, occurrences and daily sights.

He also photographed the new public symbolism of the transformed political milieu in the early 90s. He documented in innumerable photos the grotesque commercialization of the new symbols.

On work

“The truth is that I was never a good student. I was attracted to practical things. I approached problems not on the basis of books, but on the basis of practice. It was the same in photography as well. I always had this inner urge to create something, to achieve something. I strived to learn almost everything from my own experiences, even from my own mistakes.”

(Part of an unpublished discussion between Klára Szarka and Károly Hemző in 2009–2010)

Confession about the moment

“I consider myself similar to a piano artist, who is not a composer, but someone who plays a piece by a great composer, though in such a way that it may sound even better than if the author himself was playing it. I consider myself a mediator. The challenge is to grasp the moment as it affected me, and to try to reproduce the feelings it triggered. I always strive for this.”

(Part of an unpublished discussion between Klára Szarka and Károly Hemző in 2009–2010)

“I imagine life as…”

“I imagine life as two films running simultaneously. Like in the old days in the cinema: there is the feature film, which is history, continually unfolding around us, and there is the short film, which is my story. There are parallels in the two films and parts that overlap, but there are also entirely separate parts. I try to watch both as an outsider. Both films interest me greatly, even the way they intersect.”

(Károly Hemző about photography, published in the special issue of Fotóriporter magazine)

Source: Hungarian National Museum
Address:1088 Budapest Múzeum krt. 14–16.
Tel: +36 1 327 77 00