Akos Major

Akos Major

When he wakes up each morning his first glance is to the sky. If it is overcast, Akos Major reaches for his camera and heads for the door. If the sun is shining, his camera stays where it is. A shadow-less, monochrome atmosphere is central to the Hungarian born artist’s photography. Each shot has been discovered in advance, leaving nothing to chance. A long exposure time produces an almost meditative effect, resulting in an exquisite portrayal of the subject. Locations are selected carefully. They are places of human activity that appear, at the time of shooting, eerily deserted. A row of peddle boats at a bathing resort in the off-season, raised on a platform above the water. The atmosphere is surreal. The deliberate composition of the image places the boats at an uncomfortable distance, as if something has dragged them from the shoreline out into the water. Another image shows a group of three basketball hoops arranged symmetrically. They too stand out against the vast void of a dreary afternoon. The aesthetic structure of Major’s images is formal, and yet they capture a moment frozen in time, as if you might reach out and touch it. The subjects of the picture are like magnets, sucking in time, producing an almost eternal presence that a typical day at the resort could never have. Even the frame on which the boots rests seems to drift off into the abyss, like a gateway to another world.

Stephan Reisner