I have always liked photographing, since I was a child. I have had an interest in painting, although I never found as much pleasure in it as in photography. I love drawing and recently I have done more fine art work. I like the ‘technically perfect’, ‘technical photography’ as well but I feel art photography is more my own. I got a camera when I was 9 years old. It was only a hobby until the time I left Hungary – my birth place and moved to London to study art and photography and film seriously.

I feel content and the most proud of myself when I do a work I like and receive good feedback about it. People’s understanding of my ideas and my art work is the most important for me.

My favorite tools are my pencils and camera. I plan with a pencil (draw and then paint my idea) and create it with my camera. I enjoy doing these. It is exciting when an idea comes to mind and when I draw/write them down on a piece of paper. I prefer film cameras because of the details I get. I do not get the same results when I use digital camera. Film is however more expensive at the moment and also more time consuming. (In terms of time, it is not always true!)

I like best of what I do is when people look at my images and say the same words/expressions about them as I did when I was planning my idea. I think I can say that a piece has turned out really well when I get the same feeling by looking at the image as I had when I was planning and painting my work.

Darkness, mess, untidiness and empty/free/abandoned places inspire me. I can become very ambitious, brave and creative/productive when I am left on my own.

At Photography College I was taught to do ‘perfect’ job. ‘Perfect’ meant to create images that are extremely sharp, ‘well’ composed and lit. I do not agree with the College’s meaning for perfect work.

I never think a work is finished. My photographs tell stories. The story might continue.

I use actors and models within my settings. My location for the shoot has to be carefully scouted and chosen by me. I always make my decisions about the actors and settings carefully.

The voyeuristic dimension comes from the fact that the object is not aware of the gaze. In my work, I look at the object/subject’s self and identify it with my own. My subjects are people (one or maximum two persons in one image), in any age, any class and either gender, although the clothing has always a significant component in my images. The importance and aim in my photographs is always the actual fact I have said above namely: having any class, age, race or gender, the self will always be available for viewers to identify with themselves. I am looking I have a gender/self/identity which I transfer into my photographs into the actor without recognising its gender and class. I am ignoring the actor’s gender or sex. So I understand that the concept of gender comes into my work subconsciously.

I am giving my self to the actor and not my gender. The viewer however, realizes the gender of the actor but pays little or no attention to that. What we (the observers now) realize more is the self of the actor, it is standing with its back to the camera. We then identify the actor with us; we are looking at the actor and seeing our self in it. I am the artist then revealing my own self to the observers (as I took the photograph/it came from me) and by that I allow the viewers to look into me. This is the intimate look, the gaze which I begin with looking through the viewfinder and which I then end with passing onto viewers. Photographer artist Hannah Starkey uses mainly female actors to create her images. She has said that she likes to explore ‘everyday experiences and observations of inner city life from a female perspective’. Although, according to her ‘In the late ‘90s you can produce a body of work about women that is not necessarily about women’, ‘Women are just more interesting to look at’. (Schwabsky @ http://findarticles.com/p/articles, 1998) And this is the way I feel about my own approach often.

The idea of passing on a message with my photographs has become more intriguing. I believe I have got to keep ‘listening to my mind’ and creating those images I feel I have to tell my story. Photography is almost a language, I must think more consciously about what message I am sending across and how I do it. I believe the concept of gender is more subconscious than stressed.

My purpose in engaging with anything that involves the evaluation of my ideas is my mind, is my self and what it tells me. My aim when taking photographs is to show some things you perhaps do not see in normal life, I want those ‘things’ to appear special and unique for each individual viewer. I do not mean to judge in my images, it is important to leave space for interpretation. I do not want to show anything that would want viewers to make assumptions/nothing they could stereotype to. I like the fact that the observer really has to read my images to get clues about the person and situation (as it is the viewer itself). I want to create images that are more substantial and which are related to everybody, not just one specific individual.