Kata Kálmán (1909-1978)

Photographer. Was one of the first prominent figures of Hungarian social documentary photography. From 1927 she attended Alice Madzsar’s school of movement art where she met her future husband, Iván Hevesy. They began to photograph together in 1931. She took pictures of the life of agricultural workers while travelling the country. Her images that, through individual stories, truly displayed the prevailing poverty and despair between the two world wars, stood in contrast to examples of ‘Hungarian style’ photography which depicted a more idyllic lifestyle. The album entitled Tiborc containing 24 portraits by Kálmán, an introduction by Zsigmond Móricz and accompanying texts by Iván Boldizsár was published in 1937. The album’s success allowed for the publication of two more of her albums: Szemtől szemben [Face to Face] and after the Second World War, Tiborc új arca [Tiborc’s New Face]. From the 1950s she engaged in organising the Hungarian photography scene, edited photographic books and took part in the foundation of the Hungarian Association of Photographers.