ERNŐ VADAS
(Nagykanizsa, December 17, 1899 - Budapest, May 30, 1962)

His picture Libák (Geese) won the One Thousand Swiss Franks award, voted on by all the world’s photographers, in the competition run by the Swiss journal Camera. He received the London Royal Photographic Society’s Emerson Plaque in 1934; in 1938 he came fifth among 13,424 contestants in the American Photography yearbook. If he had not lived here and at this time, he would have become considerably better known, given his talent, determination and passionate love of photography.

He took his first picture in 1918 when his parents gave him a 9x12 camera as a present for successfully completing his secondary school studies. His career in photography started in 1927, when he studied under Rudolf Balogh. He turned out to be a very good student. Between the World Wars he became one of the most successful photographers, the one with perhaps the greatest influence in Hungary. He taught several amateur and professional photographers. He started Tibor Csörgeő, Kálmán Szöllősy, Rudolf Járai on their careers. He was an outstanding representative of the Hungarian style. Bold light-shadow effects, background lighting, mirror-like surfaced silver bromide paper and momentum typified his well-composed pictures. His photographs appeared in Picture Post and Lilliput, the English magazines edited by Stefan Lorant; Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, London News also published his work.

In 1945 he returned home to Hungary from the Mauthausen concentration camp. Being an independent artist didn’t save him from being nationalized. He went to work for Magyar Fotó Állami Vállalat (State Enterprise of Hungarian Photography) and, after 1956, its successor, MTI. He attempted to preserve the results and traditions of Hungarian style during the time of Socialist Realism. Looking at his pictures today, we are appalled at the false atmosphere of the age.

He collected a total of sixty-seven gold medals in exhibitions. His work was officially recognized, he was the president of the Magyar Fotóművészek Szövetsége (Association of Hungarian Photographers) from its inception and was elected president of the MÚOSZ (Hungarian National Union of Journalists) Photo Section. He and Andor Angyalfi were the Hungarian directors of the Nemzetközi Amatőr Fényképészek Világszövetsége (World Association of International Amateur Photographers) in 1947. In 1962 he was elected to the board of the photo reporter section of the International Association of Journalists along with Pál Bence. These are merely his titles. The photographs are very good.