The Erika Deak Gallery is delighted to announce its next exhibition by renowned Hungarian photographer, Szabolcs Barakonyi.
Barakonyi spent the past two summers working on this new series, and had no fewer objectives than to show how noisy can a hard-working day be around the weekend family house. We see working homeowners, men cutting trees, watering the fields, painting, drilling and sawing – but these seemingly everyday activities do not lack danger. Neither for them, not for those living in their neighborhood. Even that their work is useful - for them – the earsplitting sound of the lawnmower is all but nerve-racking for everyone else around. Barakonyi examines the phenomena of „restless man” in this series, unfolds the type of man incapable of relaxing. He shows these men through his peculiar lens, and doing so we no longer despise but even begin to like them while watching their trivial performances.
Barakonyi always searches for moments of absurdity, acts of unambiguity, he wants to unsettle his viewer into uncertainty, and make him question what is exactly shown on his photographs? The subjects are still chosen from everyday life, they are commonly unsophisticated, but there is always a great tension on his classically composed images. He makes his photos with the old fashioned analogue technique, and he still insists on using natural colors and lighting.
Barakonyi was born in 1976. He graduated in 1997 in the Szellemkép Free School. Since 2003 he is working as a photo reporter for Index, an independent internet news site. Between 2003-2006 he received the Pécsi József Prize, in 2006 the Lucien Hervé and Rodolf Hervé Prize, in 2007 at the Recontres des Arles he was awarded with a Photo Service Publishing Prize, and in 2011 he received the Andre Kertész Award.
01. 11. 2013 - 02. 02. 2013