Zsuzsanna Lipták

I have been interested in photography for as long as I can remember. Then, for my twentieth birthday, I was given my first "real" camera, a second-hand Minolta SRT101, a very old-fashioned thing even then, all manual, and about three times the weight of a modern camera. It has been my close companion ever since.

I consider photography to be a form of expression of what one sees. I try to render with my photos an image maybe not so much of the picture's subject, but of what I personally see when I look at it. I don't much like studio photos; I simply try to catch, in the real setting, the atmosphere, the expression, the moment that interests me.

I am mostly interested in portraits, either of people I know, or - preferably - of strangers. I think the reason is that it is people that interest me most. However, I have recently also become interested in objects, such as machine parts, gadgets, ships.

I take both colour slides and b/w photos. I learned how to work in a b/w darkroom ten years ago, but discontinued until I joined grain last summer (summer of 2000). I now enlarge my own b/w prints. I enjoy spending time in the darkroom, all alone in the red light. However, I do not generally spend much time on my prints, and rarely employ any special darkroom techniques other than choice of detail and of contrast. As a rule, I try not to alter the photo too much after it has been taken, because for me, its main purpose is to catch that very moment.

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Last update: February 27, 2006