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The

Artist

Márton Mónus

Nominated in
2021
By
Capa Center
Lives and Works in
Márton Mónus (1990) is a freelance photojournalist in Budapest who photographs mainly for news agencies, including Reuters, dpa and MTI. In addition to his everyday, highly varied photojournalism work, he seeks topics with a wider range in his personal projects.

He often follows the subjects of his photo essays for many years. His series are mostly people-focused, trying to explore the problems of individuals or social groups with the tool of photography. His work has been rewarded with honored awards: shortlisted in the See.Me The Exposure Award competition in landscape category, and his image was exhibited at the Louvre in Paris. He has won several awards at the Hungarian Press Photo Competition, including the André Kertész Grand Prize, the Károly Escher Prize and the Zoltán Szalay Prize for three consecutive years for the best-performing photojournalist under 30. He has been participant in international masterclasses such as the Nikon-NOOR Academy Masterclass and is now a third-time scholarship holder to VII Academy seminars.

His latest photo essay on air pollution in Northeast Hungary was chosen by the Reuters news agency as one of the most important Wider Image story.

Projects

90 minutes

“Oltalom” (Auspices) Charity Society started to use sports as a therapeutic activity of personality developing value in its operations in 2005. “Oltalom” Sports Club tries to provide regular and free sports opportunities for the disadvantaged. During the trainings, in addition to the rules and techniques of football, participants acquire the skills necessary for cooperation and joint work which they can use in everyday life, at school and at work. Besides, players learn endurance and self-discipline during training and games.

I’d like to show what it’s like when someone plays heart and soul on the ground, looking for a way out, rather than pretending to be interested in playing for a lot of money. last but not least, they can forget for a while all the burdens, the pain that presses their hearts, and they can be kids again.

Swelter

There are certain areas in Hungary where inhabitants has serious difficulties heating their homes, mainly due to financial reasons. One such problematic spot is the Sajó Valley region. Residents burn any burnable material to warm their poorly insulated buildings. Because they can’t buy the right quality fuel, they burn wood, garbage, tires, clothes, waste paper, construction waste, PET bottles found in their inefficient heating utensils — in fact, anything that can add a little warmth. Unfortunately, the families not always acquire this fuel in a completely legal way, thieving wood from surrounding forests is not uncommon, searching for coal in pits dug into the ground, neither the theft of burnable materials from abandoned buildings.This kind of heating, apart from the fact of not providing enough heat, is extremely harmful to the environment as toxic substances (mainly sulfur), dust and ash are also generated and released into the air creating a serious health hazard in the area.

Márton Mónus
was nominated by
Capa Center
in
2021
Show all projects
Each year every member of the FUTURES European Photography Platform nominates a set of artists and projects to become part of the FUTURES network.

The five artists selected:

Márton Mónus is a freelance photojournalist who explores socially sensitive topics from the classic documentary perspective of the silent observer. In his images, he demonstrates patience, authenticity, and empathy for those he is photographing. It is his intention to show what is happening first-hand on the ground and leave room for interpretation.

Enikő Hodosy has previously revealed human sensibilities through the careful observation of external signs, but in her recent series, she focuses primarily inward and tries to transform the inner images of self-healing and meditation into poetic still lifes. A sensitive, talented, young artist facing a promising future experiences extreme impulses.

Zsófia Sivák was born in the village of Kerecsenden, Heves County, in the northeastern part of Hungary. She knows rural life as her own, and looks at it with that
knowledge, rather than with the wandering gaze of a stranger. She never crosses the boundaries of authentic documentarism: while her strong opinions offer an intimate
insight, she does not interfere with reality in her pictures. She earns the trust of her subjects with good reason, and she never wavers from it.

Kincső Bede has everything that the word ‘futures’ implies. Despite the unpredictability of the future, it is strength and enthusiasm that she brings to her projects with incredible determination. Self-critical, she recognizes her own limitations, yet she is also extremely trusting of her intuition, which makes her work highly emotional. The future is indeed uncertain, but Kincső Bede always approaches her chosen subjects with courage, authenticity, and substance.

Anyone who chooses to work with an analog technique, compose in a viewfinder or work with a given number of images must have a high level of professional knowledge, concentration, and a clearly defined idea. András Zoltai works with analog technology. As a documentary photojournalist, he is constantly looking for socially sensitive topics, human stories. During the post-Soviet period, he produced the series The Chance - Post-Soviet Sports Heritage in Armenia, which shows the fate of athletes in the margins of society. The dilapidated facilities and old-fashioned training methods take us back to the past. His photographs demonstrate a high level of social sensitivity and a deep sense of communal responsibility. As an artist, he believes in the power of images, in his duty to show the photographs to the public.