Photographing the filming of the docu-fiction Gyuri Cséplő was a formative experience for István Jávor. While his relationship with the director, Pál Schiffer, was not particularly good and he was only a substitute for the photographer who originally had been chosen, the undertaking was one of the great moments of his life. Jávor had never seen such misery and poverty before he visited Németfalu, a village in Zala county. The experience deeply shocked him. As he recalled in 2010, “there was the Gypsy neighborhood, people living in unimaginable poverty, shanties, naked children, disease and death everywhere, and suddenly I was there.”. Along with the experience itself, the scientific and cultural milieu also had a strong effect on him: these people noticed and paid attention to the social problems. Among the pathbreakers was István Kemény, one of the prominent sociologists of the era and an occasional advisor to Schiffer. The photograph Jávor took of Kemény during the shooting, with the researcher staring into the camera, became iconic. The work photos of Gyuri Cséplő offer glimpses into Jávor’s experiences with the people of the village. According to him, he was surprised by how much he enjoyed their company, instead of feeling reluctance to mingle. Jávor considers this experience one that greatly affected of his later career.
Location
Budapest Arany János utca 32, Hungary 1051
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