First Budapest Photo Festival 2017

Budapest Photo Festival is going to take place for the first time this year in spring, and it is going to represent the values and novelties of the classic Hungarian and international photography within the frame of a two-month series of exhibition. Vast range of programmes, workshops, museum educational programmes, portfolio review, photo book exhibition, photo marathon and professional events are awaiting visitors, Ridikül.hu reports.

The festival focuses on the traditions of photography and the outstanding creators and tendencies of contemporary photography. Photographers offer exhibition opportunities for different generations, but mainly for the youngsters, so the public can get to know them. The festival was kicked off on 1. March in the Hall of Art with photographer Alex Webb’s exhibition named The Suffering of Light.

Even in the first year of its existence, Ridikül.hu notes, the festival had been a member of The Photo Europe Network /PHEN/ where they cooperated with Europe’s famous photo festivals, including Nordic Light International Festival of Photography, Guernsey Photography Festival, Festival ManifestO Toulouse, Photometria International Photography Festival, Ioannina, Festival of Ethical Photography, Lodi, Photon Festival, Valencia, Photoromania Festival, and last but not least, Cluj-Napoca. The Municipality of Budapest helps the festival to achieve its aims; the patron of the festival is Alexandra Szalay-Bobrovniczky, Deputy Mayor.

Museums and galleries

According to Ridikül.hu, prestigious museums and other institutions with extended range of programmes have also joined the festival. The Hungarian National Museum organizes a “fence exhibition” of its portrait collection. In the Sports Museum of Hungary, you can get to know the first Hungarian sports photographer, Lajos Vermer. The Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism exhibits a selection from Károly Hemző’s artistic gastro photos. The Hungarian Theatre Museum and Institute evokes theatre photographer Béla Ilovszky’s forty-year long career. The Kiscell Museum holds a “Budapest now and then” street photo exhibition. In the small gallery room of the Metropolitan Ervin Szabó Library, exhibitor Judit Erzsébet Szabó has chosen a real Budapest topic: she has been taking photos of the lake in Városliget for long.