Constructions and spaces

Hungary and France. 2007-2009. 6x9 medium format colour slide with large format camera

My photographic series documents constructions sites around Hungary and France, using 6x9 colour slide roll film with a large format camera that allows me to use the shift and tilt technique combined with a small depth of field, and therefore obtain a miniature effect of the documented sites. Hungary went through a major economic change since the end of the socialist-era, and since joining the EU in 2004. Big developments in and around the city of Budapest and around the country started to take place, changing the natural and urban landscape forever, changing what people have seen and known for decades. Development is vital, shall we say. But in what terms? In what ways? For what price? Is there a sustainable way of doing it? After receiving the André Kertész Photography Prize in the beginning of 2009, I moved to work in Paris, and kept on working on this series. Somehow our planet seems to be a small place, with most of European cities ressembling to each other: cranes springing up and covering the skylight everywhere, as if our cities are not already crowded enough. London is probably the most jam-packed with cranes, Paris being more traditional, always keeping its fashionable appearance. It is a much bigger city than Budapest, but construction sites don`t seem to be much different. My series questions the necessity and the process of development through the changing of human environment. Is it a change for good?

Constructions affect the life of people. It not only changes the way we perceive the landscape, but it also transforms the way we live our day-to-day lives - making it better and quicker and easier. I am drawn by the immensity of these sites: being really passionate about it, whereas my mind doesn`t approve. I like showing construction sites as unnatural, deserted places, all scaled down to the dimensions of childrens` toys. Machines become toys, enourmous piles of rock and earth become a small heap of sand: the definite transformation of our environment is in question.