Mai Manó Gallery ("Kis Manó")

In the second edition of the exhibition series Momentary Script, works were selected from the photographs by the second- and third-year cinematography majors at the University of Theatre and Film Arts, Budapest. The young artists chose the theme of reaction and, upon defining its meanings as understood by them, creating their images accordingly.

Some attend the theme by photographing human figures and spaces; others play with shapes and lights or reveal the theme through the space that is born from an encounter of architectural designs. Sometimes it is the interaction between the elements of nature that is portrayed.

The exhibition showcases how the fifteen artists happened upon the presence or embodiments of their theme. We see what they found important to show with the tools of photography beyond the still image’s historicity within; and also how they complement or modify these findings with selected literary quotations.

CSIZEK Gabriella,
curator of the exhibition

”The camera is the most reliable tool for acquiring the skill of objective seeing.”
László Moholy-Nagy

In Hungary, training of film directors and cinematographers began at the College of Theatre and Film with the leadership of Béla Balázs, Géza Radványi, and Gyögy Illés in 1949. Over the course of many decades in teaching cinematography, many have graduated whose movies earned national and international success. High-quality cinematic expression in these movies gave birth to the later deservedly world-famous Hungarian school of cinematography.

Practicing with photographic devices needed for taking still photographs, getting to know the regularities of photographic expression and its visual perception remain important stepping stones in the now university-level curriculum. Since photography, similarly to other forms of visual art, is based on vision, photographic exercises primarily teach students to see. They prepare them how to make the world around them be seen with the help of their camera while, at the same time, capturing any changes in lights and shadows and embracing the joy of recording these moments.

Kosztolányi, the Hungarian author, writes: “Objects are static points of our lives swishing by.” In his spirit, first-year photographic exercises begin with taking pictures of objects close to and made by people under natural, as well as artificial lights. Photographic studies aim at teaching students to visually interpret various forms, materials, surfaces, and light effects; it also encourages students to recognize the inner nature of objects created by humans and to acquire the ability to compose man himself through the language of photography later. An additional goal is to enable students to discover human contents that, so far, have been hidden.

The philosophy of teaching cinematography is parallelity; students have to discover the world around them with their cameras, then later, they have to re-construct the world through their creativity while taking into consideration the particular features of the genre. In the meantime, they also come to realize that there is nothing in our world that would not be worth translating into a visual experience through the language of photography in a two-dimensional space.

MÁTHÉ Tibor cinematographer
Professor at the Department of Film and Television
(University of Theatre and Film Arts)