Portraits from the series "Cikória"

In my work "Cikória" I documented the life in a Roma settlement in the west of Hungary during 2015 and 2016. My aim was to make a kind of tribute to the Roma people who are living in small settlements all over Hungary. Roma culture is very diverse, but as a whole also shares many similarities. Unfortunately one of those similarities is the stereotyping and discrimination pushed towards them by the surrounding societies. A continuum existent at least since the 15th century (probably since the 13th or even earlier) until today. The kin who gave me their trust to photograph them are, as I would say in some way stuck in-between their volatilizing Roma culture and society and Hungarian contemporary culture and society. Neither being completely part of both leaves them in some kind of fatal cycle withdrawn to their kin on the one hand and in disparate dependence to mainstream society on the other hand. Considering the medium of photography, with its inherent powers and limitations and the rather classical documentary approach of my work, the history of pictures attributed to Roma from an outsider perspective and the current situation of Roma in Hungary I sometimes felt doubt about my projects gratification. But drawn to the people I wanted to give voice to their beauty and the hardship of their everyday life.