CALCUTTA TIMES

THE TIMES OF INDIA, Friday, 18 APRIL, 2008.

’His pictures have  a movement’

Subrata Kotal

Photographer Mala Mukherjee talks about her tryst with Hungarian photographer Eifert Janos with whom she hosted an exhibition at the Academy recently had hosted an exhibition of my photographs in Delhi which had drawn the attention of the dele­gates from the Chinese

embassy. The exhibition was a collection of my works during my first personal visit to China in 2004. Soon, the embassy authorities invited me to visit China agaín. Similar invitations were extended to 15 other photographers. It was in China where I had first got introduced to Eifert Janos. He wanted me to come down to Hungary and host an exhibition of my works there.

Although that hasn’t happened. He was keen on exhibition in India. Earlier, Janos had come down to Kolkata in 1974 as a Hungarian folk dancer. During those days, he wasn’t a professional photographer. This was his second visit to the city and we exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Though our styles of photography are very different, it’s always nice to be exposed to a different sensibility. What I liked most about his works is that he literally plays with his frames and images. There is also a distinct movement in his pictures. And that comes from his 17 years of experience in dance. He uses technology to infuse a sense of movement even in his still photo­graphs. He also uses an LCD projec­tor to blow them and screen them on the wall.

Janos has taken some pictures of the city as well as that of artists with their works at the Academy. What I found striking about his city pictures is the way he has used just a portion of a wall on the street and captured people in motion against that background.

 (AS TOLD TO PDG)