Best Hungarian Press Photos of 40 Years on Display

Open to the public from this Thursday, the Capa Center – named after the world-renowned documentarist and war photographer Robert Capa (born as Endre Friedman) – hosts a compilation of Hungarian press photography exhibitions in celebration of 40 years of such exhibitions.

“Since 1981, the press has changed, the political situation in Hungary has changed; the technology and the legal environment have changed, the way and frequency of publishing images has changed, but the most important thing has not changed: the commitment of photojournalists," the press material of the exhibition says.

The exhibition in downtown Budapest features pictures by 123 photographers, only those that have been submitted to one of the Hungarian Press Photo competitions in the past 40 years.

As András Bánkuti, Head of the Photojournalists’ Department of the Association of Hungarian Journalists noted, "this exhibition was made up of thousands of pictures, which, according to my intentions, present the most distinctive themes, display the independent thoughts of my colleagues, and in many cases clearly show the strong characters of the photojournalists. I was impressed by the commitment and sacrifice of photojournalists, as they often process important topics for their own pleasure, not on commission. The golden age of the press ended in 2008 with the economic crisis. Since then, every editorial office has been saving on staff and salaries. At the same time, high-quality, but unpublished, long-term essays and reports have reappeared at exhibitions. They should have had a place in the press properly paid."