ANALOGUE

Two worlds. They are analogous. But they never meet. They cannot. They are in contact without touching each other. There is no synchronicity. Their relationship is an illusion-reality. It is like something; it seems to be something. They remind us of each other. They awaken memories that can recall the ‘other’. At the same time their connection, which is based on appearance, supposes a relationship that is founded on reciprocity – mutually, there and back. This relationship is created by the mind among these appearances. From this, arises the unique form of the analogy, which assumes an identical (theoretically), or at least similar way of thinking. In this relationship, different but also similar mental structures can affect each other.

The photographer is a lonely person when he takes photographs. He is by himself, his companion is not humanoid. But still he is in ceaseless interaction with it – the connection is continuous; the flow is two-directional. But the one, who works with the camera, is alone. He is on his own, locked in the dark room of his thoughts and ideas. He is driven by only one wish – to fix the forms that are projected on the dark wall of the room. These images are his only, even if he shares them with others. What happens if the images of the two photographers, two mental structures, together become visible? If they are parallel, their repetitive character appears – the repetition that can seem like the consecutive fixing of the other’s thoughts. But maybe these are just fortuitous concurrences, which make a kind of relation between the two worlds. The viewer, even unintentionally, is seeking connections, correspondences, analogies. The analogy between the work of Tibor Zátonyi and Artúr Rajcsányi is not necessary. It ensues from their relationships to the pictures, which is not forced on them by the prefixed program of the technical medium. It comes from their fate, the inevitable sense of pressure demanded by the moment that they have to capture the thing that comes into view, the thing that has already been formed into a picture by the receptors, that multiply on the retina. They have to retain, preserve this picture with the help of the material. It is a salve to the anguish that is caused by questions straining inside.

So it is not a fleeting moment, but a vanishing vision that detains them through its fateful enticement, that does not let them step forward until they hear the silent click, when the shutter comes into action, which exonerates them.

Therefore, the photograph is a device of survival, a pledge of escape. A vital question, vital condition. It is a device and way of existence. The fixed picture is not a self-expressing form; it is not a message for others in this period or the future, which looks out for a solution. It is not in the service of remembering. The pictures are silent. They keep quiet, just like their creators. They do not formulate statements, explain or interpret. Therefore, they cannot forget the differences coming from the analogy, which get their distinctive, meaning-modifying function in sight. Without them, each new “facsimile” would be an automatic repetition, a perfect redundancy. But there is no perfect repetition (contadictio in adjecto), since identity supposes spatial and temporal conformity. The same place, one and the same point of time. But from this, also the identity of the creator would follow. But this person is finite and imperfect, so he cannot form a perfect work – even if it is a reproduction. Though he can repeat himself or others, as the possibility of it resides in the entity of the technical apparatus. But the number is still restrained in spite of the vast amount of solution, which come from the permutation of the variations offered. The thing, the way and the time of fixing is contingent. There is no regularity in it, usually there cannot be. It is not encoded, not determined.

So the analogies of Tibor Zátonyi and Artúr Rajcsányi assume forms in such a manner that they can become works of great importance, depending on each other, in their own complexity, only in this way, fixed in photographs and placed next to each other.

 
Gábor Pfisztner

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