But we did not plan a separate celebration, as the Hungarian Press Photo Exhibition itself has always been a kind of celebration in the past three and a half decades. A celebration of photojournalists and photography.

These exhibitions hold a mirror to everything that happened to and around us in the previous year. This present exhibition will not showcase sensations. The photos reflect our everyday reality, and, as they say, it is not the mirror’s fault if you don’t like the image you see.

It is often said that press photo exhibitions tend to present more depressing, sad, sometimes disturbing pictures. In the previous year – fortunately – photographers did find themes and phenomena, where they could reveal the underlying beauty, humanity, and sometimes – it is probably not an overstatement – even valor in human relationships.

Such is the image series of Attila Balázs, which earned him the Grand Prize of the Association of Hungarian Journalists, and the André Kertész Grand Prize-winner piece of Máté Szekeres, which presents the joint fight of a mother and her daughter for life.

The main theme of the previous exhibition was the migrant crisis. Although Hungary was less impacted by this modern age phenomenon last year, we can still follow the fate of the people fleeing terror in the superb images of Zoltán Balogh, Dávid Balogh, and István Fazekas.

The photos of Márton Magócsi presenting the life of people living in a secluded village, without electricity, fighting for their mere existence, are presented next to the pictures of those luckier ones, who show up in the works of Orsolya Ajpek, in her series titled For One Week We Do Whatever We Please. In the winning photo of the sports category singles, Péter Szalmás also captures a deeply human moment.

Thus, this year’s exhibition is not about sensations but about life and humanity. In the Arts category, Zsolt Birtalan’s They Are Gone undertakes probably the most difficult task in photography: depicting absence, the absence of those who have departed.

I dedicate the 35th Press Photo Exhibition to the memory of Zoltán Szalay.

Tamás Szigeti, Photojournalist, Curator of the Exhibition

Opening hours:

The Capa Center is open on Monday - Sunday: 11am – 7 pm.

Admission fees:
Adults: 1500 HUF Students and seniors: 800 HUF
Group admission for groups of 15+ people: Adults: 1000 HUF, Students, Seniors: 600 HUF
Family ticket: 3000 HUF
Free admission for all exhibitions: children under the age of 6 visitors over 70 years of age

Venue: Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center
8 Nagymező Street, 1065 Budapest, Hungary

Source: capacenter.hu/en