I first went to New York in 1999 as a participant in Kind of Blue, a group exhibition of Hungarian documentary photography organized by Sándor Szilágyi – András Balla, Imre Benkő, Tamás Féner, Judit Horváth M., Lenke Szilágyi – at the Hungarian Consulate. It was then that I started to make analogue, black and white photo series in Manhattan, Williamsburg, Harlem
In 2017, I was able to spend a few weeks there again as a tourist, and the change I experienced was surprising. At that time, I mainly photographed in the Bronx, because there I found a similar subculture to my previous works on Budapest Pro Cultura Urbis Józsefváros and the Berlin Neukölln district, supported by the Moholy-Nagy grant.
In 2022, I was awarded a grant from the NKA to continue my work, and I succeeded in realising the idea I had described in the grant. My concept was to visit the locations of the previous years, photographing in Williamsburg, Harlem, the Bronx, Coney Island, but also Manhattan and the bustling world of Broadway. I documented the changes in the city and my changing relationship to photography.
My earlier photos were taken with analogue black and white, then I continued with a digital camera, but I also took photos with a mobile phone. In my experience, people’s attitude towards the photographer has changed, they are much more distrustful, and it is more difficult to work in the genre of “street photography” than before, but I think that there is still a need for a subjective documentary style, because this is how we can capture the authentic life of the street, which reveals a lot to the viewer after seeing the pictures. Without Atget’s photographs, we would have a poorer understanding of turn-of-the-century Paris.
I like to photograph when I can get to know an area better, in depth, in context, and this comes through in my pictures. I have been working on my NKA-funded series of images of the Rákos Rendering Station for nearly ten years, but all my work is the result of long-term projects. Through family connections, I have had the opportunity to visit New York several times, and I have continued the series of photographs I started earlier, and the material I have produced has been used to put together a new exhibition.
György Stalter