'WHY ON EARTH DO YOU WANT TO GO TO SZIGETBECSE?' HE ASKS. 'THE KERTESZ MUSEUM, MATE!' I CLARIFY

摘要

It's a hot afternoon in September when I arrive at Ferihegy airport in Budapest. After I collect my bag, a customs official stamps my passport and I'm free to enter Hungary. So begins my two-week trip to study the work of the Hungarian photographer Andre Kertesz, and to experience the culture that fashioned him. An artist whose imagery strongly influenced modern photography, Kertesz inspired many future greats, including Henri Carrier-Bresson and W. Eugene Smith. During the 1930s, while living in Paris, Kertesz was regarded as a master photographer, and it was during this period that he made many of his most ceebrafed photographs. From the 1940s until the 1960s, however, he worked as a freelance photographer in New York, where strict editorial guidelines and unappre-ciative editors did little to encourage or promote his unique talent. Kertesz died in New York in 1985. Today, almost two decades later, his photographs act as permanent reminders of the struggles and achievements of a great artist.