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The

Artist

Lives and Works in
Budapest
András Zoltai (1990, Szentes) is a documentary photographer, visual storyteller, and National Geographic Explorer based in Budapest, Hungary. He studied photojournalism at the Academy of the National Association of Hungarian Journalists. Specializing in socially and environmentally critical issues, he strives to blend journalistic and conceptual approaches in his documentary narratives. Since 2021, he has worked on environmental stories along the River Brahmaputra in India. This experience made Zoltai realize the urgency of addressing the water crisis in his homeland, Hungary, a landlocked country abundant in water. His current long-term project, "Blue Memoir," focuses on water issues and its isolation on physical, social, and spiritual levels in a Central European country that is supposed to be a water superpower. His approach explores the fragile and vulnerable relationship between humans and water through encounters and memories from his homeland, while also addressing how climate change and human negligence affect this most precious resource and the quality of life surrounding it. He has been working on this project since 2022. His work has been published in numerous international publications such as the Washington Post, Fisheye Mag, Libération, El País, and Le Monde, among others. He has been awarded the national József Pécsi Photography Scholarship three times and was the first recipient of the Carmencita–Kodak Grant and also got nomination to Leica Oskar Barnack Award and Joop Swart Masterclass. He is a talent of the European FUTURES platform and proud member of NOOR Academy Alumni.
Projects
2025

Flood Me, I'll be Here

During my journey to India I met Brahmaputra, the son of God, the last great free–flowing river with a spirit and reverence. In the eternal view of his floodplains, in the relentless flow of his stream, and in the people who respect and honour him, I was witness to a childhood memory I never got to know. All the missing elements from my childhood has been completed by the experiences I collected on the bank of this mighty river. ‘Flood me, I’ll be Here’ is an exploration of my encounter with a sensitive, harmonious, yet defenseless relationship of people with nature and water on the riverine island of Majuli. My motivation is to photograph the issues of isolation in physical, social, and spiritual sense, and focusing on how people react to the river and interact with the ever-changing environment.
2025

Blue Memoir

In Blue Memoir, I explore the contradiction of how water, a source of life, has become a force of both absence and excess in Hungary. I trace an invisible but relentless devastation—one not marked by a singular, cataclysmic event but by a slow unravelling. Our fading connection to water is a storm we do not see, yet its impact is profound, reshaping how we live, think, and belong. Hungary has long been known for its abundant, rich water resources, once a force of balance, shaping the land and sustaining life in the Carpathian Basin. However, the country has faced its driest period, with nearly half the usual rainfall absent. Droughts deepen, rivers shrink, and natural ecosystems suffer—yet, paradoxically, sudden storms and violent floods threaten us simultaneously. If these climate trends continue, a land of abundance will teter on the edge of desertification.
András Zoltai
was nominated by
Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center
in
2021
Show all projects
Each year every member of the FUTURES European Photography Platform nominates a set of artists and projects to become part of the FUTURES network.

The five artists selected:

Márton Mónus is a freelance photojournalist who explores socially sensitive topics from the classic documentary perspective of the silent observer. In his images, he demonstrates patience, authenticity, and empathy for those he is photographing. It is his intention to show what is happening first-hand on the ground and leave room for interpretation.

Enikő Hodosy has previously revealed human sensibilities through the careful observation of external signs, but in her recent series, she focuses primarily inward and tries to transform the inner images of self-healing and meditation into poetic still lifes. A sensitive, talented, young artist facing a promising future experiences extreme impulses.

Zsófia Sivák was born in the village of Kerecsenden, Heves County, in the northeastern part of Hungary. She knows rural life as her own, and looks at it with that
knowledge, rather than with the wandering gaze of a stranger. She never crosses the boundaries of authentic documentarism: while her strong opinions offer an intimate
insight, she does not interfere with reality in her pictures. She earns the trust of her subjects with good reason, and she never wavers from it.

Kincső Bede has everything that the word ‘futures’ implies. Despite the unpredictability of the future, it is strength and enthusiasm that she brings to her projects with incredible determination. Self-critical, she recognizes her own limitations, yet she is also extremely trusting of her intuition, which makes her work highly emotional. The future is indeed uncertain, but Kincső Bede always approaches her chosen subjects with courage, authenticity, and substance.

Anyone who chooses to work with an analog technique, compose in a viewfinder or work with a given number of images must have a high level of professional knowledge, concentration, and a clearly defined idea. András Zoltai works with analog technology. As a documentary photojournalist, he is constantly looking for socially sensitive topics, human stories. During the post-Soviet period, he produced the series The Chance - Post-Soviet Sports Heritage in Armenia, which shows the fate of athletes in the margins of society. The dilapidated facilities and old-fashioned training methods take us back to the past. His photographs demonstrate a high level of social sensitivity and a deep sense of communal responsibility. As an artist, he believes in the power of images, in his duty to show the photographs to the public.