The Phasebook project was established by the Hungarians Levente Kádár and György Károlyi in 2009 to document people participating at festivals. In the project?s first phase, the two made portraits of 79 people at last year?s Sziget, Hungary?s biggest music festival, held each summer on an island in the Danube. Kádár and Károlyi turned to the past when choosing the technology to make the portraits, using glass negatives. This required the subjects to remain perfectly still for 5-10 seconds, during which time they were asked not to show any emotion.
The long exposure time and the neutral expressions on the subjects faces does not erase their stories, but it does lend a kind of otherworldliness to their persons.
As the project continues, Kádár and Károlyi want to post the portraits on www.phasebook.com along with comments by the subjects.
Author: Eszter Götz
