Humans are the only living beings who are aware of the transcience of life. We are bound to accept this fact with total vulnerability. How can the transient nature of our personality be acknowledged in an individualist society? Three years ago, I set out to find an answer to this question in my photo series.
When I started to work on the project, my grandmother was diagnosed with dementia. If our personality completely disappears at the moment of our death, then we can think of dementia as that frozen moment in which, day after day, we slowly drift away from ourselves. Her disease carries within it the starting point of my fears.
Ever so slowly, the original project turned into a collaborative effort with her. Photography and the time spent together helped us reconnect with each other in a new way. The last time I felt such an intense connection with my grandmother was when I was a child and she used to distract me with made-up stories during boring bus trips. Now she was the one in the role of a child, and I took her to places where one would not normally take a grandmother who is slow to move and suffers from dementia. These trips had a great impact on her and perhaps helped delay some of the worse symptoms of dementia.
While I’m watching my grandmother change both mentally and physically, I’m aiming to embrace acceptance, striving to experience the existing order in the world, in which the transience of life also plays a part.
This collaboration had a great impact on my grandmother, our relationship has also evolved. The reason why I started to record videos was to show this personal aspect of the project. Although I don’t regard these videos as a part of the series, in my opinion it is important that they are shared.
Balázs Turós
Balázs Turós was born in Budapest in 1990. “I was fourteen years old when I first held a camera in my hands. Photography has played an important role in my life from the very first moment. After graduation, I was admitted to the Department of Photography at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design. After finishing my BA degree, I moved to England. I was introduced to FotoNow, a community interest company in Plymouth, which I worked with for two years. This period was truly influential for me. I went to England initially to learn English, but nonetheless I dedicated all my time and energy to photography during my stay. As a result, I returned home with ten smaller photography projects, but not so good English. In the following years, my photography stalled. I bought a one-way ticket to China and traveled for six months without taking as much as a single photo. Once back in Budapest, I enrolled in a MA Photography course at MOME. After earning my master’s degree, I was awarded the József Pécsi Fellowship in 2018, 2019, and 2020. My work was exhibited at the Ludwig Museum, the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center, as well as the Hungarian National Gallery.”
Balázs Turós’ photographs are shown at the 21st International Festival of Photography Fotofestiwal in Łódź. This year, there are three festivals in Łódź—Fotofestiwal invited Photomonth from Minsk (Belarus) and Odesa Photo Days from Odessa (Ukraine). More information at www.fotofestiwal.com.
