Szabolcs Barakonyi
Cold Trail
The Erika Deák Gallery is delighted to present Szabolcs Barakonyi’s latest photo series, that were shot on crime scenes. He’s always been interested in a documentary approach to photography and the representation of the absurd nature of reality. Just as Barakonyi’s previous series, Cold Trail also deals with the relation between documentary and reality. The pictures presented at the exhibition are sad and realistic, exciting and mysterious at the same time. As soon as we realize that the photographs were taken of a situation that cannot be repeated, on a scene of an actual crime or an accident, the audience tries to solve the secret behind the scenes with an exciting, hightened emotional game. Barakonyi’s sensitive, photographical way of seeing separates the pictures from its original context despite the tools used by the police at crime scene investigation, and fills them with artistic solidity. Unlike the photographs by Weegee or Mell Killpatric, in which stoic cops and horrified bystanders are pictured in different ways with the reality of sudden injury or death, these works are mostly familiar with the more abstracted works of Arnold Odermatt taken at car crashes, that are neither documentary, nor fictions.
Szabolcs Barakonyi was born in Budapest, in 1976. He is mostly known as the photographer and editor of index.hu. In 2003-2006 he received the József Pécsi Photography Scholarship, in 2006 the Lucien Hervé and Rodolf Hervé prizes, in 2007 the Recontres d’arles photo service publishing prize, and in 2011 the André Kertész prize.
Opening: 2019. 11. 05. at 6 PM
Opening speech by: János Sugár, Artist
Onview: 2019. 11. 05 - 30.