X-ray of a City

Taking photos of life in the streets, „street photography” is one of the popular branches of documentary photography, but it is not easy. It is the relationship between people, machines, buildings and squares, a never ending flow of simple, every day situations. It is a difficult genre, because we have to find our own reality, to grasp our own reality in what happens in front of our eyes. Despite the ever present present and available electronics(mobile phones that can be used as a camera and small digital cameras) in people there is a reflex: people are afraid of cameras. People are apt to be suspicious and uncomprehending, consequenly the photographer has to be enduring, patient and tolerant.

Documentarists instinctively feel that it is their duty to make a diary of the area where they live, to prepare a kind of inventory. To live in a city is a blessing and a curse for a photographer. We owe a lot to the place where we live. Our street, square, district and our city become our obsession. There are not many photographers who don’t make their own series of photos of their city. But there are many who never complete their series, because there is always something else, something more. When is it possible to say that it is complete when our worlds are in constant flux? Is it possible? And if we say no, then the characteristic series seen at an exhibition or arranged in a book are not the last ones, you can always add more. A constant beginning and an end that cannot be reached, because the time, space and activities (in a city) are unique and indefinable.

In this book there are more than fifty photos taken between 2001 and 2008. Untouched pictures, they are not edited or manipulated. They are the Budapest of the beginning of the 21st century with the eyes and style of Sió: these photos did not just „happen”, they were taken with a certain planned subjectivity, the photographer knew very well what he wanted to show. In our digitalized visual world Gábor Sióréti worked with „classical”, traditional photografic means and methods (today they would rather call them renegade methods) , but at the same time a number of post-modern features can also be detected. Beside the easily understood pictures there are a number of strange, intentional irregular pictures, they look as if they were unfinished, expecting the spectator to try to explain what can be seen. The series clearly shows a line from the documentarist tradition, from the important original tradition to the experimental, autonomous report photography in an individual style. It is a sad fact that the numbers of the representatives of this style are decreasing. The reason might be that people don’t seem to be interested in such photos, and that taking such photos is hard work and there aren’t many possibilities to publish them.

Anton Corbinj once said that digital photography deprives photography of tension, because the result can be seen straight away. So Sióréti took his good old Leica, and a 28 cm lens, slipped in the film, and when the sun was shining he did not go to the swimming pool, to Margaret island or to sunbathe. He went out to the streets and squares. Very often tension is caused when one just shows up and begins to take photos, especially since Sióréti did not peep from hidden spots. He was out in blazing sun and the deep shadow. He was usually standing on the sunny side. He used monocrome film, so the contrasts are sharp. He was hunting for everything that the film „tolerated”. He tried to find out the range of light and shadow so that he can be fixed on the most sensitive film. He was looking for scenes where there is only light and darkness, there is nothing in between. He was hunting for unremarkable faces, ordinary situations and interactions that in the photo become unique. He composed the pictures, then undid the composed pictures. Then he went home, and in the dark room he developed, dried and blew up the pictures. He very rarely gave up his anachronistic attitude. When he did, he worked on his computer.

Imre Benkő, one of the outstanding representatives of our documentary photographers while he was working on his Budapest album (almost 15 years), never went out when the sun was shining. If the sun came out while he was working (because street photography, which I call real photography, is unforseeable and can never be finished) he put away his camera and went home. He composed his album, Grey Lights from these diffuse lights and cloudy skies. You can consider Shadow City a parallel, a dialogue with  Grey Lights. For me Shadow City is rather Sun City. There are no grey lights here, only bright sunshine, perhaps a 100 Watt bulb, floodlight or August fireworks, and what goes with light: shadow, certain parts that cannot be seen, darkness. Bright sunshine that housewives and grandmothers hated, because dust on the glass cabinet or the tv screen can easily be detected. In this light nothing is covered, everything shows without mercy, you can see dirt, wrinkles, muscles, fat, the spots of he Dalmatian dog, the hair that is stuck together because of gelatin, the patterns of clothes, the cracks in the walls. They give the impression similar to what the specialist sees when examining an X-ray.

In Sióréti’s wide, colour photos that show everyday life, the well-known places, change, they become new and exotic, you feel as if you have never seen them, they are strange. As if there were a Shadow town (actually there is), where shadow people live. They are serious, busy, they have their destination, they either go or stay, and very rarely laugh. They live in a place where every generation feels that they are lost. The spirit and general feelig of Hungarian society, of our recent past, characterizes them. You have to hurry, live fast, don’t be happy too often, worry, be depressed, don’t listen, don’t notice the other one. A digital camera that would recognise a smile would not be able to take photos of them. They are not afraid of the camera, they are insensitive.

„He who asks questions, interrogates, because he is also interrogated.” – says Lajos Őze in the film „Time has stopped”. The parallel with street photography (apart from the historical context) is obvious. The photographer who steps in a happening most often does not give ready answers, only – through his lens – asks questions, because his curiosity (the little devil) makes him go forward to ask questions about the word surrounding us. This self consistent, important album of standing value is the result of this strong motivation. This is another Budapest.

Simonyi Balázs