Interview: Gergely Handó

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Tell about yourself a little bit... How did you become a photographer?

I was born in 1980 in a small village in Hungary near to Mátra, which is the highest mountain of Hungary. At the end of the 80s came the interest in photography. It was nice

to look back the photos which were taken on a trip or a birthday. That's when I decided that I also wanted to capture moments. I'm a lucky guy, because my father took me

seriously, even though I was just a 7–8-year-old boy he surprised me with a Zenit-C camera. I preferred to be alone and observe the world around me at my own pace. To do

this, you need to slow down a bit mentally. Even though I had many friends, photography is a one-person thing. I went alone to take photos of places and people I knew. I

clearly remember a photo I took on Ilford PAN 100. The leaess trees at the edge of the forest were beautiful, but I wanted to depict the trees differently than I have seen

before. I simply laid down, set the smallest depth of eld, focused on the grass and composed the image so that the blurred trees took up most of the photo image. The

viewer's eye obviously notices the sharp part of the photo rst, but then involuntarily starts looking at the trees, which are completely out of focus but clearly recognizable.

They know they are seeing trees, but not like when they are walking in the woods or looking at another photo of trees.

What has been the biggest lesson you have learned as a photographer?

Thanks! This is a very good question. A very good and timely question. If you had asked me a year ago, I probably would have given you a technical answer. I recently found

out that I have a disease called ADHD. Now this is going to be funny. My illness means that I can't focus on my things. The only exception to this is taking photos and then

developing the negatives. To answer your question, I can say that photography has taught me to focus on my tasks. Little by little, I transferred the kind of concentration that

I involuntarily do when taking a photo into my everyday life. This is a great gift for me. I still have plenty of room for improvement, but the path is already there and that's the

point. There is one more thing. When I learned that I was ill, I was became quite depressed. Then I met someone whose difculties were much more serious than mine. He

has had nowhere to go home. He was living with others with a similar fate in a forest. They allowed me to document their everyday life. As a photographer, I feel it is my duty

to show what I see every day – the "B-side" of life. As with these people, almost everyone turns their eyes away from them and ignores them. It is difcult to take notice of

them anyway, since they are not in downtown Budapest, but very far from there. It is a great lesson to others to represent them in an authentic, dry manner. At rst, I had to

put away my cameras. If you want strangers to trust you, you can't shove the camera in their face.

What advice would you give to a young amateur photographer, who wants to take their photography to the next level?

Above all, humility. Humility towards the photography and its subject matter. Don't think that a newer or more expensive camera will produce better photos. My oldest

camera was made in 1938 and I still love using it. Most importantly, the camera is just a tool. It gives us the opportunity to present the world around us.

I suggest to buy photo books! Especially books by famous "old" photographers, who are no longer alive but they teach us through their works. I've seen Martin Munkácsi's

photos a thousand times, but I always nd something new in them. I could mention my other favourite, Henri Cartier-Bresson, whose interest in photography was sparked

by one of Martin Munkácsi's photos. I have a 540-page Robert Doisneau book next to me, which I look through it every week.

A technical suggestion: use a xed lens for a month. Even though this limits the photographer, but he or she can learn a lot from it. Everybody can bring the subject closer

with a zoom lens, so let's reverse this. Let's get closer to the subject. No matter what it is. Just remember what Robert Capa said: "If your pictures aren't good enough, you

weren't close enough". So, change your photography habits a bit. Believe me, if you do it right, it will feel better than taking photos with the best camera in the world.

In your opinion... What is a good photograph?

The one that still comes to mind after three weeks and I have to go back and look at it again. In my opinion, a good photo is a kind of an aha experience when you say: Oh, my

goodness! I see this every day and now that moment is here, in front of me. Somebody simply froze it to for me. No frills, just the bare reality.