The exhibition, called "Attachment", features 40 large black-and-white photographs that "trace the everyday stories of villagers in rural Hungary and Transylvania. From starkly beautiful portraits to stunning, expansive landscapes, Korniss' lens captures disappearing ways of life, and bears witness to the transformation of the countryside after 1989," the centre says on its website.
"To preserve a way of life that will soon disappear! As a photographer I couldn't have found a better task for myself. The gift of photography is that we can preserve even the most ephemeral subject: man, in the world he created and in which he lives," Korniss has said of his work.
Korniss worked for the women's weekly Nők Lapja from 1961 until 1991 and was picture editor for the theatrical monthly Színház between 1991 and 1999. A freelance photographer since 1999, Korniss' photographs have been seen in international magazines including National Geographic, Geo Magazine, Fortune, Time, and Forbes. Exhibitions of his work have been held in galleries and museums in sixteen countries. In 2004 Péter Korniss was awarded the Pulitzer Memorial Prize. In 1999 he was awarded the Kossuth Prize, the highest honour awarded by the Hungarian government.
Korniss' book "Attachment 1967-2008" is published by Fresno Fine Art Publications in the United States.
The exhibition at the Hungarian Cultural Center in New York runs until June 15, 2010.
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI) / Photo: MTI
