The artists nominated by

István Bielik (b. 1985) is a freelance photographer based in Budapest. He works with various Hungarian newspapers and online magazines. As a photographer, he sees it as his mission to use the instruments of visual storytelling to present the situation of the downtrodden and those who live as minorities on the margins of society, who cannot make themselves heard by the majority. In so doing, he shines a light on injustices in the world.

His work has been recognized through a variety of prestigious professional awards and achievements: In 2014 he was awarded the Grand Prize of the 32nd Hungarian Press Photo Competition for a photo series about the civil war in Syria. In 2015 he covered the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the impact of the refugee crisis across Europe. In the same year he was selected to participate in the Joop Swart Masterclass organized by the World Press Photo Organization. In 2017 he took part in the workshop of Magnum Photos as a recipient of the Robert Capa Centre’s scholarship. In 2018 he was the recipient of the Károly Hemző prize, one of the leading Hungarian photography awards, in recognition of his photo series which drew on a sophisticated form language to capture social phenomena in a way that reflects the photographer’s deep social sensitivity. In the same year, he was also selected to join the Nikon-NOOR Academy Masterclass.

He was awarded the Pécsi József Photography Grant in 2015, 2018 and 2019 for his project entitled The Last Storytellers. In his work thus far, he has tended to focus on the presentation of contemporary societal problems and conflicts, as well as their ramifications. But presenting the victims of long-gone repressive regimes, his The Last Storytellers diverges from this focus. Pursuing a similar theme, his The Darkest Hour series shows that in the same way that the wounds carried by the survivors of labor camps continue to mark the victims to this very day, the underlying experiences have also left an enduring imprint on the physical landscape and the collective memory of humanity.

András Ladocsi’s (b. 1992) desire for seeking and finding the truth comes from the subject he observes. His works reassure and delight the viewer while they are also equally capable of making them uncomfortable.

In his photos, naturalism and realism are greatly anesthetized and organized into tight compositions. The works vibrate between an intimate and a more distanced approach. The artist’s intent to systematize and to create is unavoidably present in the pictures, but his neutral use of space and backgrounds being completely free from identity, provide adequate territory for the observer’s personal interpretation. His art also exhibits noticeable cohesion. This does not sprout from a labored stylistic mannerism but instead from the explicit and successful display of a distinct vision.

András Ladocsi was also nominated for Futures by Hyères Festival.

Balázs Máté is a Budapest-based photographer. Alongside his commission works he runs his personal projects as a continual inquiry and experimentation about visual perception and experience. He sees the medium of photography as a possible means of extended sense.

His work has been shown in various galleries and festivals including The Saatchi Gallery, Ludwig Museum Budapest, Dubai Design Days, Vienna Photobook Fair, Backlight Photo Festival and Budapest Art Market. His work has been published in magazines including Wallpaper Magazine, IGNANT, Self Publish Be Happy, Thisispaper, Waterfall Magazine, The Room Magazine and Der Grief.

Daniel Szalai (b. 1991) is a Hungarian artist, working on large-scale, photography-based projects. In his latest works, he focuses on human-animal relations reflecting societal, political and economic anomalies. He mixes different media in his artistic practice and also works with spatial installations.

Szalai studied photography at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. He also holds a degree in Art and Design Theory.

He was nominated for the C/O Berlin Talent Award 2020. In 2019, he was a winner of LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards. In 2018, he became the laureate of the Carte Blanche Award founded by Paris Photo. In the same year, he was selected for the 2nd cycle of PARALLEL - European Photo Based Platform and he was also awarded the grand prize at the Budapest Portfolio Review 2018.

Szalai’s work has been exhibited and published internationally. He is a member of the Carte Blanche Collective and the Studio of Young Photographers, Hungary. He lives and works in Budapest.

Dorottya Vékony is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Budapest, Hungary. Her main field of interest keeps revisiting the theme of the body, whether it is our own or others’, or a collective body consciousness. The body images appearing in her works are primary reflections of our relation to the world, the environment and ourselves, forming a map that carries our history, the traces of our age and our personal stories.

Her aim is to make the spectator observe and to be observed at the same time. While we watch others, we are being watched too. The desire of observing one another, of having insight into the lives of others posits a system of norms based on which we define ourselves compared to others. We want to confirm that we have similar problems as others, that we are better than or just as good as they are. In other words, that we only deviate from the average on an average scale.

Her works explore how we can describe our body in the most objective manner possible, to represent it without any intimacy whatsoever. Looking at these so-called anti-intimate states, the works examine all the subtle and complex relationships our physical extension forms with our environment, and how social expectations shape our appearance. Personal stories and critical observations regarding the body are represented along with abstract objects and intertwined sculptural bodies. Her fundamental medium is photography that she often combines with other disciplines, such as objects, photobooks or video.