“Béla Kálmán was born in Hungary and became quite well-known as a photographer in his youth. As a consequence of the events in 1956, he had to leave Hungary in the middle of his career and moved to the United States. It is not going too far to assert that the joy he felt over the visible world, his vigour longing to explore the richness of his environment, his eyes being sensitive to new expereinces and his boundless eagerness for the beauties of the world encouraged him to receive recognition. Although he had to cope with several difficulties over the years, he always took a cheerful and confident view of the world. It might have been the joy radiating from the natural way of life, that captured and enabled him to create his balanced photographs. Though he had a wide range of interest, his most captivating pictures are the ones presenting the joy he felt over watching the splendid scenery of nature. His photographs of flowers, fruits, vegetables reflect the pleasure he found in rich natural images.
He did not ignore the reality of human world either. He has constantly been searching for the way of presenting the problems of this complicated period of the end of the 20th century, and since he has a thorough insight, his pictures are more than just a simple reflections of reality.
His pictures are touching poetic metaphores. He reveals the drama, the variety of colours, the endless richness of the visible world with moderate suggestion... Though he usually worked to earn money, it is obvious that his main ambition was to learn more and more about the world and to express significant ideas through them...”