KEREKES, Gábor
Photographer, Photo Reporter
(Oberhart [D] 2nd August, 1945 - )
1964: High School Diploma at the Kölcsey High School of Budapest; 1964-1973: Photographic Industrial Trade School; 1973-1974: Assistant Photographic Reporter for the Photographic Society of Budapest. Between 1974 and 1979 he was a photographer for the Vasipari Kutató Intézet /Metallic Research Institute/; between 1985 and 1990 he was the Photo reporter of the periodical entitled Képes 7 /Weekly Pictures/, then from 1990 of the Képes Európa /European Pictures/ periodical, after which he became a free-lance photographer. He has been preparingphotographs ever since 1970, and systematically prepared a series of photographs of Budapest. Kerekes received a number of standard awards in the quarterly tenders of the photographic magazine entitled Fotóművészet /Photographic Art/. He considers merely 35 photos acceptable from this period. Since 1992 his repertoire ranges from the different methods of camera obscura, through historical photographic techniques, all the way to the usage of Polaroid. Kerekes chooses from his repertoire the technique which he finds most suitable for the given task to be implemented. His attention has turned more and more towards historical techniques, such as salted paper prints and printing-out paper; he has built himself a camera of the size of 30cm x 40 cm. His most recent photographs depict the topics and motifs of birth, existence, death, and cessation. Elements of the micro- as well as the macro-cosmos appear in his works, in a specifically “Kerekes-like” manner, a sort of artistic-scientific portrayal mode. His knowledge of nature and the sciences remained at those existent around the period of the 19th Century, he even goes further back a century or two, and takes on the robe of the alchemists. Over the course of the past few decades he has become a true professional. He makes his living frm his photographs, and wishes to become more and more popular on a global scale, and is willing to do almost anything to achieve this goal of his. He studies, experiments, makes use of the techniques of the historic ages continuously conducts self-examination in relation to both his personality, as well as his works, builds his relationships, and pays attention to even the smallest detail. 1977: a founding member of the Fiatal Fotóművészek Stúdiója /Studio of Young Photographers/; 1986: he becomes an artistic leader of the Studio; 1980: Member of the Society of Hungarian Photographic Artists; 1981: A member of the Dokumentum csoport /Document Group/, together with János Serencsés, Antal Jokesz, and János Vető. 1990: Béla Balázs Award.
(translated by: Vladimir Végh)
