From Mountains and Soil
Balázs Fromm
From Mountains and Soil is a work in progress photographic project. Traveling from Usghguli, the highest village in Europe, to Tbilisi, the capitol of Georgia there is only one road to take. Through my journey in the Caucasus, I’ve approached young Georgians, whom daily life of peace is currently under struggle, due to the closeness of Russia, its neigbouring state, the oppressor in the war in Ukraine. Inflation from sanctions, and the refugees fleeing from Russia leaves the nation in doubt. However, during these uncertain times, small communities and the identity of the local youth still carries on.
Balázs Fromm (B.1991) is a photographer, currently living and working in Budapest. He studied photography at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest, and new media at the CityUniversity of Hong-Kong, Hong-Kong. Fromm's field of work revolves around Eastern European topics, the historic legacy of socialism, the power of masculinity, local issues, and youth culture. His photographic approach involves documenting the disappearing working class of rural Hungary and it's gloomy industrial cities ( A city built of steel 2018-2022), and unveiling the non-conventional beauty norms and the precarious identity of the Z generation. ( East and Eden 2021) Guided by an intuitive sense of connection, Fromm captures the bonds of communities and their environment in the amidst of democratic backsliding, and rising nationalism throughout the region. He works regularly on documentary commissions, shedding light on regional stories for publications as Zeit and Republik, and many others. Balázs Fromm is part of the Studio of Young Photographers of Hungary. He received the Jozsef Pecsi photography grant from the state of Hungary in 2021. Presently, he is working on two ongoing photgraphic series, Casting and Csango Land.
CSANGO LAND
The word Csángó in the Szekler dialect originally means a wanderer. In terms of their identity, the Csángós are primarily the „easternmost” Hungarians, speaking a specific dialect of the Hungarian language, and are Roman Catholics, by faith. The Csángó ethnic group lives in the territory of present-day Romania, east of the Székely Hungarians and Transylvania, mostly in the counties of Bako and Nemc, but the diaspora is also scattered in Moldova and Ukraine. According to the official Romanian census data of 2002, only 5,000 people claimed to be Hungarian Csángó, but some national ethnologists believe that their actual number may exceed 10,000.
The homogeneous Csángó identity with the Székely has been less consistent since the regime change and, given the dispersion and the number of the ethnic group, is essentially disappearing. More recently, the political revisionism of the Romanian goverment, including linguistic and administrative measures imposed on the Csángós, has set the stage for the complete assimilation of the Hungarian Csángó minority in the region. The historical roots of their cultural traditions, religious customs, language and traditions are under threat.
In the course of my photographic project I documented the communities of the still Hungarian-speaking Csángó in Moldavia and Gyimes.