About
Tamás Schild showed his photos to the genearal public for the first time at the age of fifty, in 2008. His first entry won first prize at the Art category of Hungary’s Picture of the Year contest. Since then his environmental portraits have won awards and been exhibited internationally. He graduated in the Humanities. Before photography, worked as an interpreter.
His main themes relate to human dignity, vulnerability and evanescence.
The curatorial remarks of his first Gallery exhibition from 2010 describe his oeuvre. Available below.
Awards, recognitions:
2017 – Nominated for the Henri Cartier Bresson Award by Kunsthalle, Műcsarnok Budapest
2016 – Winner of the first prize at Hungary’s POY/Sajtófotó at the Portrait Series category
– PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris – „Red”, Silver, series,
– Featured artist on Lensculture, The Archive Mag, The Edge of Humanity Mag
2015 – Winner of the grand prize of KLPA, Kuala Lumpur Photography Award for Portraiture
-IPA/ Lucie Award: One Shot: Home Third place, also exhibited during MOPLA, Month of Photography, Los Angeles
2013 – Receives the chief prize awarded by the Hungarian Academy of Arts at the „In Black and White“ competition
– Giant posters exhibited at the ARC competition
2012 – Photo projected on Time Square, Manhattan
2011 – Award winning Portrait series category of the PressPhoto/ POY competition in Hungary
– „Discovery of the Year“ –of the Budapest Portfolio Review
2009 – Lucie Awards/IPA Nine Honorary Mentions to date
2008 -„Hommage a Van Gogh“ wins First Prize in the Art category of the POY competition in Hungary.
Solo exhibitions:
2017 -Brussels, European Economic and Social Committee
-Copenhagen, DGY-Byen – Interkulturelt Centre, Denmark
– Aarhus 2017 -European Capital of Culture, VIA Art Assoc, Denmark
– Horsens, Denmark,
-K11 – Cultural Centre, Budapest, Hungary
2016 : Mérnöki Kamara, Budapest
2014: Szeged – KIK , Hungary
2013: Bethlen Gallery, Budapest,
-Albert Hall, Bódvalenke
– Balassi Institute, Budapest, Hungary
2012: Warsaw – Balassi Institute, Ursynow Cultural Centre, Tarnow- Gypsy Museum, Poland
Bratislava – Slovak National Museum – during the European Month of Photography, Slovakia
2011: Hilton Brussels welcomes the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union with his portfolio exhibition , Belgium
– Kolta Gallery, Budapest
– European Parliament, Yehudi Menuhin Hall, Brussels
– European Commission, DG Inclusion and Social Affairs, Belgium
– József Attila Cultural Centre, Salgótarján, Hungary
– Jean Monnet Coference Centre, Luxembourg
2010: Cafe Provence, Budapest
2009: European Commission, Borchette, Brussels, Belgium
Group exhibitions:
2019 – Kolta Gallery- Budapest – , József Attila Cultural Centre, Salgótarján
2018 – Palace of Arts, Budapest projection, Budapest,
– Kaposvár Cultural Centre – NKA National Cultural Fund 25′
2017- Robert Capa Centre – Budapest, MODEM- Debrecen,
2016 – Kunsthalle/ Műcsarnok Budapest Contemporary Art Show
2015 – KLPA – Kuala Lumpur – White Box Gallery, Malaysia, Robert Capa Centre – Budapest, Hungary, Month of Photography Los Angeles MOPLA, USA
Earlier: Hungarian National Museum – twice, Hungarian Parliament, Ombudsman’s Office, MODEM – Debrecen, National Geographic – Budapest, Robert Capa Centre Budapest, Covent Garden Brussels , Belgium, KOLGA Tbilisi, Georgia
——
Curatorial Remarks:
„Most people, when accidentally catching sight of one of the monsters of their own depth will push it back to the abyss, thus making the monster ever more agitated who in turn will slowly but surely crack the walls.
When you see one or another monster of yours do not fear or hold it in abomination and do not lie to yourself either, instead, be pleased to have recognised it, take care of it, for it can be tamed with ease and will become decently domesticated.”
(Sándor Weöres, XXth. Century Hungarian poet)
TO BE BEAUTIFUL GYPSY
– Wonder what it can be like –
On Tamás Schild’s exhibition
Those who have ever dealt with the interpretation of dreams of Karl Gustav Jung or even have gone through therapy will be aware that in our dreams sooner or later a being shows up, whom we are reluctant to face.
We fear and hate it, we try to chase it away one way or another, oftentimes we hit it or at least shout at it. That figure which is of the same gender as we are, our dark alter ego, the negative side of our psyche – Jung named it as shadow, the one onto which we project the unecceptable parts of our self. In the shape of a man it appears mainly as black for American whites, and as arab or white for African blacks. In our country quite often as gypsy…In the interest of our own psychological development, for the sake of understanding ourselves better we need to face this force somehow and need to explore our shared secrets.
Looking at the photographs by Tamás Schild I think he, too, started o_ on his journey for the sake of such an encounter, even if without conscious awareness. Like an Abel, he went to the country to find his brother Kain, the root cause of all bad things. And to our fortune he did
not choose the internal journey but a real one. I can hear him humming the old Osibisa hit, Woyaya when starting „We are going, Heaven knows where we are going. We know we’re there….”
And he did arrive. Home, to South-Western Hungary, to Baranya and Somogy counties, Despite being of different discent, to among gypsies. And talking about the act of facing, he first went to visit the man who had spent time for stealing from his family.
And for many of us, too, he fulfilled the task set by Sándor Csoóri decades ago. He sat down, facing a man and together they found the most important words: betrayal, sin, patience, interdependence, integrity, vulnerability, your ways and our ways, and than together
they made sentences out of those, sentences able to dissolve our delusions, reshape our truths and semi-truths.
And then he did even more: He turned those sentences into photography and showed it to the world. He brought everything from the gypsy huts without empoverishing those living there. In fact he keeps supporting them through his work. His models opened up their entire being to him, stated their past and present in order to send signals of a quiet majority, living whichever way they do . And via the photographs, the eyes and faces and gestures desires, joys and sorrows, undeserving fates come through. Not only those of gypsies but those of any of ours.
And all that looks so beautiful and simple! Looking at the ease of the photographs one does not even consider what depths of the soul had to be reached for this result. And so that we can feel it, too, how did the photographer and his models speak to each other at the first, second, third and nth encounter, how did they shape each other’s view and knowledge of the other? How did they disentangle together from the net weaved around us by this blessed and cursed Central-European existence, and how did they get to trust and loving? And also in order that what we get shall not be rough and ready socio-photography, stolen or doctored moments as seen through from the other side of the fence.
If I were here to introduce Tamás Schild to you, I would say that thirdly he is an interpreter, second he is a husband and father, and first of all he is a brilliant photographer.
But that is not why I am here for.
I am here to tell you Tamás Schild is my friend and one of the most important artists I have ever met. Why? Because he has changed my vision, because with a single gesture he has expelled my decade old fears and suspicions.
Because he has shown how beautiful it is to be gypsy, how beautiful it is to be human. Because his pictures heal.
Tamás Katkó,
Curator, Gallerist, Photographer
Recipient of Hungary’s Balogh Rudolf award for lifetime achievement in photography