István Bielik: Faces of Freedom
Visiting is free of charge
June 04, 2019 – July 22, 2019
Every day 8 am – 7 pm
Closed on public holidays.
Capa Center – 8F Gallery
Curator: Klára Szarka
“If you love a bird, be the sky and not a cage.” (Anna T. Szabó)
The Hungarian language does not differentiate between the common and more elevated concepts of freedom. The images of István Bielik reveal several layers of being liberated from the shackles, obligations, monotony, and mundane routines of everyday life: we recognize the atmosphere of the “simple” holidays, weekends, vacations, travels, and parties taking place after the working hours, as well as the experience of being absorbed in ourselves, or the philosophical and existential spaciousness of unselfish existence, unconstrained activities, and boundless imagination.
These black and white photographs present the diversity and numerous faces of freedom.
They reveal a new creative side – and the creative freedom – of István Bielik. He is not a reporter, nor a correspondent; he was not commissioned, he did not have strict concepts to stick to: he emerges as a photographer thinking in terms of projects. Without any pressure to comply, he freely photographs freedom itself.
His images radiate elegy and some kind of perpetuity. Eternal summers, sunsets, invigorating memories. (Klára Szarka, curator)
István Bielik, photographer, winner of the Károly Hemző Prize in 2018
He started working as an intern at Népszava in the summer of 2007, where he learned the skills of the trade, and from 2008, he worked as a contractor, and later as an employee for the newspaper. In 2014, he worked as a photographer at Origo for a year. From 2017, he was the photography director of the news portal 24.hu. In the same year, he started working as a contractor for Nők Lapja magazine. Since 2018, he has been a freelancer, working as a contractor for 24.hu.
In 2014, he won the Grand Prize of the 32nd Hungarian Press Photo Contest for his photo series taken at the Syrian civil war. In 2015, he reported on the Eastern-Ukrainian conflict, as well as the immigration crisis spanning Europe; he was also selected to take part in Joop Swart’s master course of the World Press Photo Organization. In 2017, he participated in the workshop held by Magnum Photos as a Capa Center fellow. In 2018, he was awarded by the Hemző Károly Award for this excellent series showcasing a high level of social sensitivity, and he was also selected for the master course of the Nikon-Noor Academy. In 2015, 2018, and 2019, he received the Pécsi József Photography Grant.