Dr. János Szász
Dr. János Szász (1925 – 2005, Hungary) After studying law at university, he was ultimately disqualified from forging a career as a lawyer under the Communist regime due to his father’s army rank. Defiant, he kept his title as ‘Doctor of Law’ and turned on photography, supporting his family by working as a sign painter. Working most prolifically through the 1960s and 1970s, usually from his bathroom and kitchen and in sometimes near impossible economic and political conditions, Szász’s passion for his craft, together with the limits that were put on thematics and subject-matter during these years, led him to experiment with photographic technique as an outlet of self-expression: he was a master of developing, drying and printing methods, and starched into his negatives and blades and brushes, producing prints in very small numbers. (Bonhams auction catalogue) Working in the tradition of Hungarian greats such as André Kertész and László Moholy-Nagy, János Szász’s images are notable for their experimentation and radical perspectives, formalist compositions and stark, black and white contrast printing. (Robert Koch Gallery press release) Since his death his photos were exhibited at the Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco, The Hungarian Cultural Centre in London, Hotshoe Gallery, London and Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century, London. His works appeared at auctions at Bonhams, Lempertz and Griesebach.