The Asian Age, Sunday, April 27, 2008. A többmilliós példányszámú napilap egyszerre Delhiben, Mumbai-ban, Kolkata-ban, Bangalore-ban és Londonban jelenik meg. Megtisztelő tehát, hogy egy magyar fotográfussal ilyen terjedelemben foglalkoznak.

THE ASIAN AGE, Sunday, April 27, 2008 – Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, London

Lensman displays unusual genre

 By PRAMITA BOSE

„I inculcate a deep interest in delving into the multifarious aspects of life.

I guess I am a gregarious person by nature and love to remain connected with people all  the time.

Observation is the key requisite to a shutterburg’s signature vignettes.”

He is a Lensman of a different kind. Projecting his eyes as a camera, he exercises its mechanism to click photos and imprints their images on the brain. With a keen eye for detail and a profound sense of aes­thetics, he gropes for every minute grain on the frame to freeze it with effortless ease. Meet this down to earth shut­terbug from Hungary — Janos Eifert. One of the most outstanding photographers of, Europe, his creative collage ranges from the bizarre, beautiful, serepe, exotic, life­like, full of motion, authentic to the uncanny. Via the tech­nical route, this low-profile artiste develops his pictures with the aid of digital pho­tography into rare specimens of artistry that can only form a collector’s item.

Recently, Kolkata’s presti­gious art gallery – Academy of Fine Arts played host to the maiden solo exhibition of Eifert’s esoteric array in India. Having introduced the unusual genre of “image lan­guage” in his unique photo­graphic slides, Eifert makes his style come alive through grotesque expressions and compositions on natural locales and human emotions. Visibly excited about his debut display in India, Eifert earlier shared from the show­case venue: “The floor is open to all kinds of criti­cisms. You can never predict your audience’s judgement. Positive or negative, a spon­taneous response is always welcome. That’s the accom­plishment of a creator. I am personally grateful to veteran photographer Mala Mukherjee for this heart­warming invitation to exhibit my collection. Kudos to her initiative to lend me this opportunity to discover the varied facets of India and absorb them in my album of fond memories.” That the photographer has proven his mettle through his myriad snaps mounted at the gailery is everybody’s knowledge. But what astounded the onlooker’s attention is the flurry of striking stills that cuts across horror and dream imageries galore, landscapes and snow-clad vistas. There’s an element of style, character and inspiration in the row of snapshot splen­dour. Add to this, a bevy of dancers in stylised postures, pirouetting movements, choreographic pieces or a clown’s emphatic reaction inside a circus rink all spade out splash of radiant colours and black-n-white brilliance. “To me, real pho­tography is all about the cre­ative evolutions evoked in a series of black and white tones. But having said that, the colourful filaments are best scooped out from the treasure trove of fauna and floral beauty surfed within the bowers of nature,” he explained the subtle nuances of the photographic art.

“I inculcate a deep interest in delving into the multifari­ous aspects of life. I guess I am a gregarious person by nature and love to remain connected with people all the time. Observation is the key requisite to a shutterbug’s signature vignettes,” he made an assessment.

Seldom with a scope to throw a glance at the pho­tographs of reputed Indian artistes, Eifert infonned that till date, he has seen only a few good images of the illus­trious Indian creations. “Well, my access to the Indian archival tnaterial is minimal to say the least. Merely a string of pressreport pictures, portraits, still life snaps, et al sums up my lore on the Indian lens. But for those not in the loop, let me just drop a titbit that all Hungarians cultivate a keen knack far kowing Indian history, art and literature,” he revealed_ “There’s an ingrained ten­dency to fali back on the tra­ditional techniques, but the young talent pool of Hungary nowadays try their skilled hands at blending the old school of legacy with modern modules. In my opinion, the hi-tech tools can always come handy as an advanced accessory, with the help of which, the refined quality and crystal-clear texture the picture can be improved by several folds, but not the much-needed aptitude for adroitness and aesthetics that is essential for a photograph­er’s portfolio. That is only attainable via one’s heart and brain,” he concluded.

Having pioneered the con­cept of “image language”, the proficient snapper with a masterly precision analyse “Image language in photoo­raphy conforms to a differewt genre that cannot be cos­trived alone. It is best non­jured up in a clutch of li&e­minded people. Then the images convey a message at its best.” Incidentally, a coam­pilation of photo-history o~oe the area of aesthetics and techniques based on the nude shots of human figures was organised in the famous Leipzig Book Fair this Marc in in Germany and Hungary.. “Among other photographers, the book also contains my own repertoire on the art of nude photography,” he signs out.

Pramita Bose