Kornis Péter: ERDÉLYI KÉPEK 1967-2004 (Kiállítási katalógusok - Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 2005)

THE LAST MINUTES OF A DISAPPEARING WORLD • Any reference to Transylvania in Hungary was considered nationalistic as recently as the end of the sixties. Only few mainly ethnographers - were aware of the fact that traditions still were blooming in many Hungarian and Romanian villages and that people wore their national costumes in those villages. In the autumn of 1967 Péter Korniss accompanied his friend, the ethnographer and choreographer Ferenc Nóvák on a trip to the small Hungarian village in Transylvania, called Szék. There the youth still wore the national costume and danced on Saturday night in the dance-house. The experience played a decisive role for Korniss for decades. He perceived to meet the last minutes of a disappearing world and he was eager to save it for eternity in his language, in photos. He wrote about this: "The charming scenery, the ceremonies in the customs and last but not least the rich costumes meant a special experience for me." He dedicated himself to the duty of arresting the moments of the festive days, the ceremonies, the living customs, and of photographing the community of people in their moments of happiness and of mourning. And when doing so, he couldn't avoid rendering their everyday life hard work, and mutual helpfulness immortal. Those saved for eternity found the presence of the photographer natural. Friendships were born. His new friends in Szék called him to be godfather of their children. In 1978 he completed his book with the title Past Time, which contains these pictures. He closes the book with the following words: "... this is a peasants world, a receding world. The persons involved are our contemporaries. We are able to share their tenderness, their despair, their cheerfulness or their sadness, however their living conditions belong soon to the past." Those days he felt sure to have fulfilled his undertaking. The changes, which took place in Eastern Europe in the nineties, convinced him to start again. The confusion reached Transylvania too: old traditions began to disintegrate. He had an overwhelming urge to witness the process of changing in this special world. Television affected people's habits in entertainment as well as their desires. A strange, distant world moved in the bigger and more comfortable houses. Carpets made in factories, posters, giant watches and pop stars joined the handwoven textiles and hand-painted plates on the walls. Prerequisites of the modern world appeared on the pictures showing the changing world: cheap, factory made figurines, T-shirts, cars outfitted with the decoration of a "clean room". Korniss had an idea: the staged pictures. He took such photos of those who were close to him. He was surprised to see the miracle in front of his camera on the tripod: the atmosphere of photography of old times returned. Long forgotten poses, awe-struck expressions on the faces, positions, learned from the forefathers were assumed. When Péter Korniss makes photos, he is not an outsider. His emotion-laden pictures are human stories written by light. His persons are all lovely creatures, and are close to us all. Zsuzsa Rappai 4