Imre Benkő’s photographic oeuvre, which spans six decades, is a diverse material in space and time, covering twenty countries on three continents, and showing the diversity of human conditions from the 1970s to the present day. The exhibition selects from the full range of his oeuvre: from his 1975 World Press Photo award-winning shot, through his iconic series of Oz, Budapest and abroad, to his travels in China in 2019.
Benkő’s photographic interests, whether the backdrop is the big city or the countryside, focus primarily on human relationships. His images are also cordial documents; they reflect or reveal the dominant lifestyles, cultural habits and attitudes of the time, both in the East and the West.
The photographs speak a language of their own: the sensitivity of the humanist photographic tradition of social portraiture, combined with Benkő’s individual vision, results in images that are memorable. In a group of works, the illusion of the socialist past and the years of transition are juxtaposed with the random, enigmatic moments of everyday life or even holidays.
His long-lasting photo essays, such as the stages of the dismantling of the Ózd steelworks, the unbridled, ritualised concert moments of the Sziget festival, or his series of twin pairs, provide a richly detailed register of processes unfolding over time.