Artist
Richárd Kiss
Richard Kiss (b. 1994) holds a BA in Photography from Budapest Metropolitan University. He is currently an MA student in Photography at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences. As society and visual culture change rapidly, Kiss uses new media to grasp at the essence of our saturated present, focusing on changes triggered by the internet and their effects on contemporary art. In his projects, Kiss often strips photographs of their original contexts and meanings, transforming them into entirely new artworks. Throughout his projects, Kiss seeks to question the relationship between the spectator and artwork and the reasons behind an image’s production, thus making the act of photography a subject of reflection.
Website: kissrichard.com
Instagram: r_ch_k.ss
PLA.net
The internet has brought a swift and drastic change in our attitude towards photographs. Thousands of photos are uploaded online every minute, creating considerable visual noise around us. Many of these images are by tourists; they take a shot of a particular spot over and over, with the sheer purpose of having visual proof that they themselves were there.
PLA.net is a book that presents the countries of the world with a twist. Unlike conventional atlases, we can’t find any pictures, maps or information about the nations included. It is rather a pool of internet images and representations of these places – the product of an equalising algorithm. This algorithm mines photos which have been uploaded from a given country, with no subsequent editing or intervention. In the end, the assembly of images offer an alternative take on the true character of the countries they signify.
KEYHOLE
During a workshop on misinformation and fake news, I began to look for photographs whose truth and authenticity could not be questioned. I came across a series of satellite images taken via espionage efforts during the Cold War; their resolution was almost exactly the same as that of today’s publicly available photographs, taken by commercial satellites. In the project Keyhole, I use this strange coincidence to create a fictional story.
The resulting photobook contains today’s satellite images that I transformed into black and white through digital post-processing. These ageless images – containing traces of factories, railway stations, railway bridges and sensitive military facilities – easily convince the viewer that they date back to the spy satellites of the 1960s. Through this pseudo-document, my aim is to illustrate the vulnerability of the everyday media consumer.
Nominated by Gabriella Csizek, curator of the permanent Capa exhibition at Capa Center, Balázs Turós’ work explores themes that emerge from his personal development and his life's journey, and the sensitive expression of these themes in series’ of photographs. We have chosen him as a FUTURES Talent for his high-quality work and consistently performed projects. A graduate of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Turós has been awarded the József Pécsi Photography Scholarship three times.
Tamás Don, chief curator at MODEM Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, nominates Zsuzsanna Simon, a graduate of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts. Since university, Simon’s series have focused on feminism and the social issues affecting women, and she has continued to work with a strong emphasis on the female body and societal expectations in her post-graduate projects too. There are few artists in the Hungarian photography scene who have been so focused on an important social issue for as long as Simon.
Nominated by Emese Mucsi, curator at Capa Center, Balázs Szigligeti brings into play the explosive, overdriven, shiny-glazed visual characteristics of camp aesthetics, where he 'cools down’ the loudness of camp, exploiting the possibilities of black-and-white image creation. Having worked in the fashion industry since the age of 16, Szigligeti makes autonomous projects which create a special tension between the topic and the way it is displayed.
Nominated by Borbála Szalai, director of Trafó Gallery, Mari Ornella makes photographs in which control and loss of control appear with equal emphasis. Her latest series, Wanna Be My Lover, deals with the search for female identity and the issues when women's self-definition is shaped by men. The project originates from personal traumas, and sees the artist focus on her own relationship with men such as her father, the characteristics of borderline personality disorder, and the consequences of uncontrollable emotional states.
Nominated by István Virágvölgyi, artistic director at Capa Center, Richárd Kiss approaches the world and the photographs that seek to represent it with a highly analytical vision, sifting through millions of images on the internet and then appropriating them for his work. Asking questions such as ‘does it make sense to take the two-millionth photo of the Eiffel Tower?’, Kiss pulls the rug out from under the online photo services we use on a daily basis.