Curiosity underscores the Budapest PhotoFestival competition and exhibition series of classic genres (portrait, still life, landscape and nude). Where are the genre boundaries and how much transition there is between them? Élet/Kép has been one of the most popular genres of Hungarian photography in recent years. For much of the 20th century, this genre inherited from painting attracted amateur and professional photographer alike. The depiction of the specific moments and situations in everyday life has been present in art since the Renaissance. It found its heyday in 19th-century painting, sometimes with an allegorical overtone, sometimes with moralising content or by presenting the change of ages and seasons, activities and themes. While 2020 wasn’t at all conducive to people-centered photography, capturing ordinary (often serene) moments became a gesture of a significant transformation and reinterpretation of the genre.
