Master of photography with a golden diploma, photo-artist, one of the innovators and outstanding personalities of a genre, which became know as “Hungarian style”. A pioneer, a formal inventor of Hungarian photography, who was considered to be a point of relation to many photographers of his time. The little happenings, everyday scenarios captured by his photographs transmit a cheerful attitude. His classical compositions, the erge for the balance in the image convey harmony. He was photographing the characteristics of the Hungarian village, the Hungarian landscape, but at the same time, he is recorded as the first Hungarian photo-journalist in the history of photography. His life-work is of exceptional value concerning the history of Hungary between 1914 and 1944, concerning Hungarian art, and the dominating “Hungarian style” between the two World Wars. After 1991 the most prestigious photographic award was given his name.

Rudolf BALOGH (1879–1944)
When he was fourteen, he received a Zeiss camera from Vienna, and was thought to take photographs with it by his drawing teacher at the secondary school of modern sciences in Gyor. Having finished six years of the secondary school, he carried on with his photographic studies in Vienna, than moved on to Munich, Görz and Constantinaple. After his return, he became the photojournalist, or as they used to call it – the photo-illustrator – of Vasárnapi Újság in 1902. He opened his first studio in Budapest in 1912, at Váci street 12. Yet, from the beginnings he made only very few traditionally portraits, he became known more through his night-exposures of the city. During the 1st World War he served the K. u. K. army as a war-reporter, first on the side of Archduke Joseph, than alongside Emperor William, recording the stages of war, the everyday-life in the trenches. Many of his war-photographs made their way to the military museum of Vienna and Berlin.
From 1920, he became the photo-reporter of Pesti Napló for one and a half decade. His main field at Pesti Napló was Hungarian folk, landscape, genres, and seasonal animals in the Sunday art-appendix. The works of Balogh had a significant influence on the upcoming two generations. A whole generation of photojournalists grew up by his side. His great expectations towards his profession forced Márton Munkácsi, Károly Escher, Erno Vadas to the creation of report photographs at extraordinary high standards.
He was one of the inventors, and also internationally the most acknowledged artist of the “Hungarian style”. He talked the following way about the birth of the style: “we long for clarity, light and naturality, after all this mannered smear-effect and the mystical twilight of the studio. We are sick and tired of the city, which has cloaked into a dress of internationality…we are on our way to the Hungarian village, to the Hungarian lands, to find the true topic of Hungarian photography within the sunny world of the Hungarian type. I have to admit, first we were dazed and confused by the ornaments of folklore, but the spirit was lost in the hurdle of celebrating skirts, but it didn’t last for long…we were trying to capture the personality, the natural aura of the Hungarian type, to let the magic beauty of the Hungarian landscape glitter under the peculiar game of light and shadow.”
Balogh has reached the summit of his career in the 30’s. The photographer has ripened by finding his vision, while the demand for illustrated journalism was on a sudden rise all around the world. The rise of the photographer’s popularity, and the space-gaining of illustrated press were two parts of one process, supporting each other. No wonder, he was more popular, than any photographer before him in Hungary.
Not only did he interact with his photographs, he became a central figure of the photographic scene. In 1910 he became member of the MAOSZ (National League of Hungarian Amateur-photographers), between 1917 and 1929 he was vice-president and honourable member, later between 1932 and 1940 vice-president of MAOSZ-EMAOSZ (United National League of Hungarian Amateur-photographers). Member of the jury at the IV. Art-Photographic exhibition. He became president of the Professional Group of Photo-reporters, which was created within the Budapest Photographer’s Craft union in February, 1927. In 1928, at the National Handicraft Congress he was awarded with a golden diploma.
He played a significant roll in the history of Hungarian professional press too. From 1911he was the editor of “A Fény” (The Light), and in June, 1914, he together with Géza Szakál, Sándor Fejérváry, Ervin Kankovszky gave a start to the professional paper, entitled Fotómuvészet. Due to the war the paper only survived for three issues, but the profession was always remembering it to be a promising start. In 1930, he became the editor-in-charge for Fotómuvészeti Hírek.
He was working as the leader of the Hungarian Film Office’ laboratory from 1932 until he died. In 1938, commissioned by National Geographic, he took photographs of Yugoslavia as a guest of the country. His reportage happened to be so good that he was immediately invited to America by the editor of the magazine. He had to refuse this offer, referring to his family conditions and his age. He did not know what he was about to expect. In 1944 majority of his life-work was destroyed by a bomb, only negatives stored at his house in Máriaremete were left. Sirens of bomb-alarms were accompanying his funeral.