Mai Manó Gallery ("Kis Manó")

The most successful contributor of PhotoPort - portfolio consultation, organized jointly by the Studio of Young Photographers and the Hungarian House of Photography - Mai Manó House in October 2010, won the opportunity to exhibit in the Mai Manó Gallery in 2011. The professional jury awarded Tamás Páczai, in consequence of which bozgor has revealed.

"Every word means what it means (and nothing else) because everybody believes that it means what it means."
(Sándor N. Szilágyi)

Is this statement true for our visual world as well? Do we associate meaning to a word based on what we see? Or do the meanings of images make up the picture?

A dog run over. A godfather with a cataract. Ringing frost in Livez, Romania. Dutch alleys and sunbathing swans. Tulips in artificial light.

Tamás Páczai's instant (after)images of his Transylvanian home and his life as a migrant worker in the Netherlands are hanging peacefully on the walls of the "Little Manó."

What do they mean? Perhaps what everybody "believes" they mean.

(Béla Dóka, curator of the exhibition)

Páczai Tamás
www.paczai.com

I was born in Târgu-Mures (Romania) in 1981. After high school, I graduated from the Bálint György Journalist School of the Association of Hungarian Journalists in press photography in 2002. For years I worked as a freelance photographer for various Hungarian magazines and dailies. At some point I moved to England and waited tables for two years. I re-discovered the world of press as a freelance journalist after I returned to Hungary in 2009. I have been living and working in the Netherlands since the end of 2010.

Exhibitions (selection)
2011 Co-existence (group exhibition), Kossuth Square, Budapest, Hungary
2011 Attention (group exhibition), ArtBázis, Budapest, Hungary
2010 Untitled (group exhibition), Trace Gallery, Camborne, United Kingdom
2009 The Pursuit of Happiness, Noorderlicht International Photofestival (group exhibition), Groningen, the Netherlands
2007 25th Hungarian Press Photo (group exhibition), Hungarian National Museum, Budapest, Hungary
2006 Raiffeisen Gallery (solo exhibition), Budapest, Hungary
2005 Dialogue (group exhibition), Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary

Publications (selection)
2010 Private - International Review of Photographs, Italy
2010 La Zona Numero 15, Guadalajara, Mexico
2010 Lensculture.com, France
2009 The Pursuit of Happiness - a photo album, Noorderlicht, Groningen, the Netherlands
2003 Eduardo Rózsa-Flores: "Collection of Piggeries", illustrations for the book, Kapu Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary