The earliest pictures in the collection capture the devastation of the Second World War, the clearing of debris and the restart of life, mostly in the photographs of József Széll, Tibor Csörgeő and János Kunszt. The Magyar Fotó Állami Vállalat (Hungarian State Photo Company) and its predecessor were the primary source of photographic production in the post-1945 period, and it was primarily the photojournalists of the company who covered Hungary's political, economic and cultural life and international relations. In addition to the official, edited propaganda pictures, a more nuanced visual understanding of the period is helped by the reports from the photo archive of the Magyar Nap newspaper between 1947 and 1949 and the Szabad Nép between 1948 and 1956.
The collection contains numerous photographs from the days of the 1956 Revolution and War of Independence. Some of these are by unknown authors, but among the shot of more than seventy photographers known by name are those made by Árpád Précsényi, Dénes Hegedűs, Géza Muzsnay. Among the foreign photographers' shots in the collection are some from the reports of Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini, Franz Goëss, Anders Engmann and Vagn Hansen.
Contact Katalin Bognár, bognar.katalin@hnm.hu Tel.: +36 1 327-7784
Budapest's buildings and infrastructure were severely damaged in the final stages of the Second World War. The metal skeleton of a burnt-out railway carriage on Batthyány Square is a reminder of this destruction. The Parliament building was captured from this unique perspective by photographer Kálmán Szöllősy (1887–1976), one of the great masters of the Hungarian style between the two world wars.
An important element of the ideology of the communist dictatorship marked by Mátyás Rákosi's name, was the cult of the leaders. Parading the pictures of Hungarian and Soviet leaders was a must-have part in the obligatory marches on May Days. The colour photographic negatives of the unknown photojournalist capturing the waving pioneers arriving at Heroes' Square in Budapest were a rarity in the early 1950s.
The Hungarian national football team defeated the English team 6:3 at Wembley Stadium in London on November 25, 1953. The returning Hungarian footballers were greeted with huge celebrations in the capital. The picture shown here was taken by the photojournalist for the daily newspaper Szabad Nép.
On 23 October 1956, a revolution broke out in Hungary, demanding the withdrawal of the Soviet army, which had occupied the country since 1945, and a change of the oppressive communist regime. The uprising started as a peaceful demonstration turned into an armed struggle on 23 October. Hungarian People's Army soldiers deployed against the Budapest insurgents sympathised with the revolution's demands, and in several cases the crews of Soviet tanks fraternised with the population, too. This colour photograph, a rarity in 1956, captures a happy and hopeful moment of revolution.
