Guided Tour in English: Personal Distance - The Photographs of Eva Besnyo

In Hungary, Eva Besnyö (1910-2003) is usually associated with the “sociophoto” movement, which aimed to explore and document social problems in the period between the two world wars. In her second homeland, however, the Netherlands, she was renowned for her architectural photography and – in the 1970s – for her photographic record of the women’s movement. The Kassák Museum’s exhibition, opening in September, presents Eva Besnyö as a distinctive representative of modernity, and her career as the model of how a woman can live a free, independent life unshackled by convention. By establishing herself as a professional photographer, she attained a financial independence that enabled her to choose her own way of life. The Kassák Museum’s exhibition therefore presents her life’s work as a synthesis of artistic activity and photographic commissions. It goes beyond the thematic highlights of her oeuvre to explore Besnyö’s artistic methods and way of seeing. A recurring question throughout her life was the changing relationship with the photographed subject and the photographer’s participation in the situation. She frequently described this in terms of the concepts of distance and proximity. The exhibition title – Personal Distance – reflects the approach to photography that developed as she moved on in space and time.