Nellys - portraits of a young roma woman over half a decade

Artist Statement In his comments to the Song of Songs, Gilbert of Hoyland (†1172) writes about human beauty: „And indeed, you may see that one’s countenance, even in its bodily representation, is so extensively permeated by charming grace that this external form alone can offer to refresh the souls of those who behold it, and to nourish them with the inner charm of which it is the manifestation of. ” In as much as a face for him is the visual expression of its inner essence on the outside, my work is a search for such. For quite some time now, it has not been easy for anyone, as in current times the correlation between the immediate appearance of one’s countenance and its inner essence is no longer as direct and credible as it used to be in the times of Gilbert of Hoyland. The consciousness, self consciousness, purposefulness, assertiveness of people, which are all important traits in life bring about a complex, entangled, puzzling, if not opaque system of filters and transformations. Yet I have been on the lookout for faces on which in my belief the personality, the human ego is manifest in a direct way. For faces, which express in an unfiltered, unattenuated way what we may call in XXth. century terms as the humane essence. I was fortunate when during this search I found the families I have been continuing to photograph to this day. They allowed me to enter into their lives, have granted me their trust, and thus I have had the opportunity to take my photographs among them for years. The significance of that became clear to me at a hindsight, in a retroactive way, as my approach has made it possible not only to photograph them in a particular context and situation, but reflecting upon the events that have left their marks on them and shaped them, that is the changes they have been through. I had a chance first encounter with their community and their human condition has always interested me far more than their social status. Their social standing is a given thing, a framework, within the boundaries of which they live their lives, joys and sorrows, sometimes stretching beyond those boundaries. Depicting their social reality is secondary to me. They themselves matter. Their faces have revealed new and new dimensions to me. The key figure in this series is Nelly, a young, marginalised roma woman from the provinces of Hungary, Central Europe. We see her first at the age of nineteen. Dropped out of school, unskilled, unemployed, unmarried, already a mother. Apart from smoking, she has no addictions. "Do not look for what they haven't got, but for what they do have. For even the most miserable has got a treasure of the soul, which you do not possess" Sándor Weöres, XX.cent. Hungarian Poet (Self assigned, ongoing project underway since 2009.)