Zoltán Seidner (1896-1960)

Photographer. Started taking photographs in his teenage years. After moving to Budapest he worked as an office clerk until the end of the First World War, then became an assistant at a photo studio in Nagymező Street. Not long after that he began working as an independent photographer and took photographs for Színházi Élet [Theatre Life] magazine. Renowned architect Lajos Kozma saw one of his interior photos and suggested that Seidner engage in architectural photography. Thus he became a regular contributor of Tér és Forma [Space and Form], taking photographs of the best examples of modern Hungarian architecture for the journal throughout the 1930s. His images, portraying characteristics of Neue Sachlichkeit, reflect modernist architects’ views on space and optical effects. Seidner took on child photography at the end of the 1930s and joined the Magyar Fotó Állami Vállalat [Hungarian Photography State Corporation] in 1945. After the company’s reorganization he worked at MTI [Magyar Távirati Iroda; Hungarian News Agency], occasionally taking technical photographs and creating advertisements on the side.