Tamas Dezso’s body of work Here, Anywhere explores the remnants of the political shift in Hungary twenty years ago after the fall of the Soviet Union. In his artist’s statement, Dezso remarks, “As [Hungary] experienced change it simply forgot about certain places—streets, blocks of flats, vacant sites and whole districts became self-defined enclosures.” Through his photograph,s Dezso explores these forgotten areas, laden with a heavy sense of longing and melancholy. While still culturally vibrant, the Hungary in the photographs seems steeped in nostalgic reflection. Kate Levy interviews Tamas Dezso to get a deeper look.
Abandoned Factory Site (near Szekesfehervar, West Hungary, 2011)
As [Hungary] experienced change it simply forgot about certain places—streets, blocks of flats, vacant sites and whole districts
Roma Ghetto (Budapest, 2010)
Lieutenant Colonel Istvan (Josvafo, Northeast Hungary, 2011)
Kate Levy: Why did you choose to make a body of work about this specific landscape?
Tamas Dezso: The condition of the remnants and mementos of the [vanished] political era here is a mirror of the present age. In an absurd way, it says more about the present than the past, which has lingered impotently over the physical and spiritual remnants of Hungary’s heritage during the twenty-two years following the end of the communist regime. Parts of cities have been bulldozed, communities have been enclosed and quarantined—or simply ignored.
Tamas Dezso: The condition of the remnants and mementos of the [vanished] political era here is a mirror of the present age. In an absurd way, it says more about the present than the past, which has lingered impotently over the physical and spiritual remnants of Hungary’s heritage during the twenty-two years following the end of the communist regime. Parts of cities have been bulldozed, communities have been enclosed and quarantined—or simply ignored.
Since systemic changes occurred in Hungary, no political entity has reckoned with the past. Not having been processed, the past affects the present, which leads to the current anomalies: the derailment of the mutually desired democracy of 1989, the introduction of dictatorial power principles, the forging ahead of extremism, and growing neo-fascism.
These photographs can be mostly interpreted as a criticism of the present age and are made from the perspective of these observations.
No political entity has reckoned with the past
These photographs can be mostly interpreted as a criticism of the present age and are made from the perspective of these observations.
No political entity has reckoned with the past
Soviet Military Painting (Kiskunlachaza, 2012)
Ruin (near Budapest, 2011)
KL: What is your connection to Hungary?
TD: Family connections and photography itself tie me here.
As I was beginning to photograph the remains of dictatorships in Hungary and Romania, frightening symptoms of reemerging dictatorships, hidden in democracy, started to appear. The state propaganda machinery appropriated a large part of the media and rough state intervention overwrote the market economy.
Hearing the daily news is frustrating because it gives rise to the idea of moving to a real democracy. Yet, it’s not so simple. Political discourse does not distance itself sufficiently from divisive, racist overtones, which treat minorities as a burden.
However exasperating, enraging, and unfair the situation is, I am here.
TD: Family connections and photography itself tie me here.
As I was beginning to photograph the remains of dictatorships in Hungary and Romania, frightening symptoms of reemerging dictatorships, hidden in democracy, started to appear. The state propaganda machinery appropriated a large part of the media and rough state intervention overwrote the market economy.
Hearing the daily news is frustrating because it gives rise to the idea of moving to a real democracy. Yet, it’s not so simple. Political discourse does not distance itself sufficiently from divisive, racist overtones, which treat minorities as a burden.
However exasperating, enraging, and unfair the situation is, I am here.
KL: You describe the people you photograph as inhabitants of sites where "longed-to-be-forgotten Eastern Europeanness still lingers.” Can you discuss the role nostalgia plays in the work?
TD: The pictures do not contain locations and scenes that would give cause for nostalgia—rather, people and regions that have been left on the periphery after the political changes. These groups can generally be characterized by disappointment, falling behind due to a failure to achieve. Eastern Europeanness is experienced as isolation.
TD: The pictures do not contain locations and scenes that would give cause for nostalgia—rather, people and regions that have been left on the periphery after the political changes. These groups can generally be characterized by disappointment, falling behind due to a failure to achieve. Eastern Europeanness is experienced as isolation.
Car Wreck (Budapest, 2009)
Abandoned Room (Soviet Base, Szentkiralyszabadja, West Hungary, 2012)
Yet, in an absurd way, a significant part of society is attached to the period before the fall of communism, with feelings of nostalgia. Alongside the decaying remains of the previous regime’s infrastructure, a false image has formed in the collective memory. This belief holds that the not-too-distant past provided a kind of security and some steady means of finding one’s way, despite a system that was generally bad.
A similar wave of nostalgia can be detected in neighboring Romania. Besides a longing for the hard everyday of a traditional, agrarian, and animal-tending way of life (which can still be experienced in the microcommunities of villages undergoing slow depopulation), nostalgia for the period of the Ceausescu dictatorship appears to be reviving.
The world of communism determined everything; society was governed from above and accustomed to direction. Today, given the extreme poverty, it is difficult for this same society to appreciate the lack of autocratic direction. It is difficult to orient under democracy and a market economy. Many people believe things were simpler under communism—at least there were jobs.
The world of communism determined everything; society was governed from above and accustomed to direction. Today, given the extreme poverty, it is difficult for this same society to appreciate the lack of autocratic direction. It is difficult to orient under democracy and a market economy. Many people believe things were simpler under communism—at least there were jobs.
Locust Trees (Northeast Hungary, 2011)
Night Watchman (Budapest, 2009)
KL: What challenges did you face in photographing and compiling the series?
TD: Primarily my own limitations presented a challenge. My attitude, language, and technique changed with this series. I left press photography behind—it had become a narrow world for me. A more abstract intention supplemented the documentary perspective. I have sought a more abstract approach with the unity of the horizon, homogenous colors, and arbitrarily chosen topics, leaving entirety behind.
TD: Primarily my own limitations presented a challenge. My attitude, language, and technique changed with this series. I left press photography behind—it had become a narrow world for me. A more abstract intention supplemented the documentary perspective. I have sought a more abstract approach with the unity of the horizon, homogenous colors, and arbitrarily chosen topics, leaving entirety behind.
Finding locations to shoot was not difficult. These islands, destined to be forgotten, live embedded in the sphere of society, and although those in power would like to write them off by ostracizing their residents, these people receive visiting strangers with pleasure, opening up their communities in response to real interest.
Petya (near Budapest, 2011)
Peter with a Mangalitsa piglet (near Miskolc, Northeast Hungary, 2009)
KL: Can you describe the lives of your portrait subjects in more detail? How do you know them and what do their lives look like outside of the frame?
TD: Often I just happened to meet the characters in my pictures while working on other things. For example, I met István, the lieutenant colonel, at the unveiling of a military monument. He was doing the military honors at the ceremonial event. To me his character symbolizes the anachronistic power, or rather infirmity, of the Hungarian military presence with his uniform projecting a theatrical appearance, giving the impression of a prop.
I met Petya in an underground cultural meeting place in the city center. He worked there. Maintaining a low profile, he slept in a rear corridor of the former school building. Homeless, a philosopher outside society, Petya symbolizes the social status of thinking people.
TD: Often I just happened to meet the characters in my pictures while working on other things. For example, I met István, the lieutenant colonel, at the unveiling of a military monument. He was doing the military honors at the ceremonial event. To me his character symbolizes the anachronistic power, or rather infirmity, of the Hungarian military presence with his uniform projecting a theatrical appearance, giving the impression of a prop.
I met Petya in an underground cultural meeting place in the city center. He worked there. Maintaining a low profile, he slept in a rear corridor of the former school building. Homeless, a philosopher outside society, Petya symbolizes the social status of thinking people.
