It’s always great meeting people who talk about their jobs with sparkling eyes. Péter Laczkó is such a man. He’s still studying at László Moholy Nagy University, but the wandering photographer (yep, that’s his job title) has already travelled the whole country enthusiastically showing and explaining his craft to whoever is interested in archaic photography.
You’ve just got back from Cserhátszentiván, where you taught at the photo camp. What was it about?
I worked as the assistant lecturer with my teacher, Imre Zalka. Actually, I was his right-hand man. I had to help the students with their tasks on the Archaic Photography course.
What exactly is archaic photography about?
I research these old-fashioned photography methods which aren’t used anymore. One of them is the Van Dyke Brown technique, which means that I spread a photosensitive material on the aquarelle paper, then I press the photo negative on it with a glass panel, and when I place it all in the sun, the sunshine brings out the silver picture. Where the negatives were dark the paper would have a light tone and vice versa. This is how the negative film turns into the positive paper picture.
So are you more interested in the technical side of photography or do you like experimenting and playing with it?
I’m not a big expert on the subject; there are methods and techniques I don’t know anything about. What I’m really interested in and think about non-stop is how to build different structures on this method and how to best present it to the audience. I don’t know if it’s enough if my photos hang in a gallery. I rather create these structures, which people can go into. It gives an interactive feel to the whole thing, or it doesn’t, but I can show the people how picture are taken and developed and the whole chemical process. What I’m trying to do is present photography as both a physical and mental experience.
And do people actually like this?
Sure, they do. I use my Picture-lighting Gimmick (Képfényező Készüléket) the most often, I travel the country carrying it. Whenever I take a picture of someone with this, that person will have a sharp image in their memory of the whole experience. I immensely enjoy giving lectures while taking the pictures. The other side of it is that I make portraits with this machine, and the subject of them has to like the picture. But the more I work with the machine, the easier the whole process gets.
What are your other structures, for example the Space-seeing Six-holer (Térlátászati Hatlyukvány ) about?
I made that structure for the Mai Manó Ház (Hungarian House of Photographers). Károly Kincses asked me to create a structure which can be installed on the spot and presents how a camera obscura works. Basically, the Space-seeing Six-holer is a huge hexagonal camera, with a massive lens and six holes on the sides. The lens projects a picture onto the inner cylinder cover and people can walk around the picture.
And people can go and sit in your other structure, the Round-mirroring Octagonistic (Körtükrészeti Nyolcszögvény).
I also made that one for Mai Manó Ház. There is a white table inside which people can sit around. Above the table there’s a lens and above that a mirror which projects a picture on the table. The mirror can be spun and by altering the height of the table the sharpness of the image can be adjusted. The whole structure is an optical game, really.
Then you’re more interested in the know-how of photography not the picture itself?
Yep, sometimes I have an image in my head and I try to build a camera for that image. At first I started off with a basic camera obscura, then I tried to improve it and I built bigger and bigger cameras and structures. The whole process started with a picture, or, on the contrary, peaked in an image.
The images taken with your structures are completely different from the pictures of today.
Of course. These aren’t instant pictures, they require more discipline both from me and from the subjects. Every step of the process takes time, it takes a couple of minutes to adjust everything. That’s why I can’t really take pictures of people who can’t sit still or of kids.
But you use modern cameras, don’t you?
Yeah, at uni I have to. But when I’m documenting something for myself, I prefer to use an analogue recorder or camera.
You are called a ‘Wandering Photographer’. What does that involve?
At the dawn of photography, there were no studios. People only had their pictures taken on special occasions, so maintaining a studio was simply not worth it. There were wandering photographers travelling the country with all their stuff, taking and developing the pictures on the spot. This is what I do at festivals, village markets and camps. However, I also show the whole process to whoever is interested. People can sit in the Picture-lighting Gimmick, which also functions as a laboratory, and can follow the whole procedure.
This wandering lifestyle sounds romantic. Is that what you find so attractive?
I live in Budapest, but love being far from Budapest and being a wandering photographer is a perfect excuse to do that. I fell in love with the job when I travelled the country as the apprentice of Imre Zalka. He is an expert of the chemistry of photography, but I noticed that people are fascinated by the opportunity of going through the whole process of photography. That inspired me to build my structures.
You’ll finish university in a couple of years. Are you planning to be a wandering photographer even then?
Sure, but I will have to improve my methods. I wanna learn better techniques and build more sophisticated structures. Also, I need to learn which festivals and places are worth going to, how to negotiate my fees, so basically I really need to improve my marketing skills.
Where are we to see your structures in the future?
I’ll be at the Museum Quarter at Sziget Fesztivál. The Mai Manó Ház will present my Round-mirroring Octagonistic, and also anyone can have their portraits taken. As long as they can stand still, that is.
Szabó Aranka