Zoltán Tombor is a photographer living and working in Budapest. He began his international career in Milan in 2003 and later spent several years in New York, where he established himself as a fashion photographer, collaborating with leading magazines and brands. His work has been featured in a wide range of Hungarian and international publications, campaigns, and exhibitions. Tombor is the husband of Nelli Tombor and the father of Lujza Tombor. He has been a recovering addict for seven years.
His solo exhibition LOST & FOUND acts as a self-confession — a personal narrative that unfolds through both his commercial and autonomous photographic works, as well as his family archive. It reflects on the years of substance use, exploring the symbolic dimensions of cocaine and alcohol addiction, the themes of secrecy and shame, the various forms of temptation, the moments of intensity, the struggles of those around him, and the gradual process of recovery. Although photography has always been a means of self-understanding and reflection for him, this is the first time such an introspective process has taken center stage and become a defining theme of his artistic practice. His commissioned work has understandably — and typically for the field — left little room for personal narratives. However, in this context, even some of his fashion photographs acquire new meaning, revealing the potential intersections between fashion, show business, celebrity culture, and substance use.
The material presented in the exhibition is neither a documentary series nor a collection of classic fashion photography. Instead, it forms a distinctive visual tapestry — a memoir in images interwoven with text, through which Zoltán Tombor reflects on his life experiences. Within it, his commissioned and autonomous works intertwine with nearly fifty years of family photographs and a new series of symbolic images created specifically for this exhibition. In this mind map, the narrative of a life is reorganized according to the associative and internal logic of memory, as the artist looks back from the period of recovery — connecting moments of happiness and sorrow, professional and personal encounters, spanning from childhood to the present day.
The work’s fabric is interwoven with fragments of text — selected statements and case studies from self-help books on addiction, alongside Tombor’s own written confessions. Guiding him through the process of recovery were the writings of physician Dr. Gábor Máté, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, and psychiatrist Dr. Anna Lembke, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Whether shared in a book, within a support group, or during an everyday conversation, personal confessions can bring relief to both the speaker and the listener — for those struggling with addiction, those in recovery, their families, and others still seeking their way. Ultimately, this story has been an act of relief for one person — and it might offer that same sense of release to others.
Emese Mucsi
curator
VERNISSAGE
INTERIOR IMAGES
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