Mother Michael Goes to Heaven

22. February 2013. – 21. March
MegnyitóOpening: February 21, 2013, 6:00 pm
MegnyitjaRemarks by: Somogyi Zsófia
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina

I met Michael, Monica and Alexander while I started photographing prostitutes in the Józsefváros neighbourhood of Budapest. They were the only ones in this isolated community with whom I became friends; over time very close ones. I photographed them for approximately 3 years; from the time when they moved to the flat where the whole series was taken.

The flat where they were living was very important to this series. They received their clients and lived their lives here; the two boys (Alexander and Michael) met in this flat, and it was the place where Michael committed suicide on 24 February, 2010.

Michael’s death was not because of or linked to prostitution. He loved Alexander. He loved him and wished to live happily with him. Unfortunately Alexander – a boy, who lived the majority of his life in an orphanage and as a gay prostitute – has never been capable to love. Never knew about intimacy. He used Michael but never loved him. Michael was the chaser and Alexander always wanted to escape. Michael depended on his love, all his life depended on it; Alexander couldn’t stop playing his cruel games.

Michael’s act seems very logical to me now. He carefully planned his act. Nobody or nothing could bring him back from that decision. His death became the answer and the relief from everything – and perhaps for him it was.

The life of Monica and her family is not usual. But the problem that finally led to Michael’s death is. The question that I asked after the death of Michael was: “could it happen to anybody?” And I realised that similar situations were and have been in my private and in my friends’ lives.

What I can do now is to go on, and there is no other choice than learning from Michael and his meaningless death.