Black or Pink

"It is an illusion that photos are made by camera...they are made with the eye, heart and head."

Henri Cartier-Bresson

ILDIKÓ SOPRONFALVI

born in 1976 in Hungary, studied civil engineering at the Technical University Budapest and now works as civil engineer. In the world of engineering, as with the world at large, there is a desire to stick with has been tried and true over time, however, it is the major breakthroughs in engineering, those who step outside the box to create something we have never seen before, that places one on the map. As Sopronfalvi is no stranger to the conceptualization, design, construction and maintenance of the public and private infrastructure of her homeland, it comes as no surprise that Sopronfalvi’s creative side would follow suit.

Love at first sight, Sopronfalvi bought her first SLR camera in 2015. She was so crazy for photography that she wanted to learn everything about it immediately. She started with workshops but, as the classes were only for beginners and she thirsted for so much more, Sopronfalvi began to study photography at the Akademie Deutsche POP in Stuttgart.

“Without obsession, I would not be here,” she admits, “At the Academy, I made several relationships with songwriters and musicians. I took photos for singers and bands, and even made CD covers for them. I have had a lot of publications for different fashion magazines in New York.”

While, for Sopronfalvi, civil engineering is only a job, a means to a financial end, the skills she has learned have aided her in the organization and execution of her photographic endeavours.

“Civil engineering is a very rational and fully responsible way of thinking. As a photographer, you need this rationality and consequentiality in juxtaposition to the creativity and spontaneity. I often use these skills in organizing shootings, thinking through concepts and moods or choosing the team members.”

However, photography is her ultimate dream, and she believes that shooting every day will one day become a reality.

“Photography is a self-expression activity, a work of art. You can present a new world through the spirit of the photographer–it can be mysterious, emotional, expressive, intuitive and spontaneous all at the same time. When I have the camera in my hand, I feel freedom and happiness. In each picture, there is my eye, heart and head on it.”

Sopronfalvi’s main profile has developed into fashion and portrait photography. Working together with the same professional creative team of stylists, hair and makeup artists, designers and models for projects, she basks in the joy of a reliable team that flows like a well-oiled machine. Her favourite model is Sindy Ofori, with whom she has had several shootings with, and when the opportunity arose to create her first submission for a fashion magazine, she could not think of anyone else she would rather shoot with.

For this series, called Black or Pink, Sopronflavi pulled out all the stops, and so did her team. “I wanted to show that fashion could be more personal than people generally think it is. We started with brainstorming with the stylist together and she prepared the outfits constructed from straw.” The shoot was designed to show Sopronfalvi's love of colours, contrast, complementary contrasts and mood intermingled with emotion.

Sopronfalvi tried new lighting techniques for each photo in the series and was thrilled to have each of her team members perform at their peak best. “We flew together,” muses Sopranfalvi, “I felt as though my team and I were in another dimension.” Through the creativity of their symbiosis, Sopranfalvi was able to show the soul of the model and capture the ancient energy of her culture, creating a captivating piece worthy of a magazine cover.

With the success of Black or Pink stemming from a country where the population of Black people are represented by the thin sliver of demographic labelled “other”, Sopronfalvi’s upcoming project has gone a step further in an effort to crack conservative and foundational paradigms of her home country: traditional Hungarian clothing worn by Black models.

“Hungary can be a very conservative country with traditional Eastern Europe thinking. The people are not so open for new ideas or more modern Western European ideations. I know, because I used to live in Germany and have seen the differences between the two cultures. This newest series is to be my rebellion against this conservative way of thinking, by bringing traditional Hungarian embroidery into notoriety while showing the crossing of different cultures.”

By fusing foreign cultures with age-old tradition, Sopronfalvi’s latest project is sure to raise eyebrows in her homeland–and she hopes it does. It is always amazing when artworks can shake the foundational core of it’s viewer, and Sopronfalvi's work aspires to create a bridge for viewers to an uncharted place of introspection, the crossing of which cannot help but take them to new destinations within their own belief systems.

Canon EOS 5 D Mark II, EF 70-200 mmf/2.8 IS II USM, EF 17-40f/4L USM. Hensel studio lighting with large softbox or beauty dish (2-3 pieces). Post-Production: Adobe Bridge CC 2017 (for picture selection), Adobe Photoshop CC 2018 (for skin retouches). Preferring perfect lights and makeup, retouch time is only lengthy for beauty and close ups which can run approximately 2-3 hours. Influences: Reportage and Portrait - Steve McCurry, Joachim Bergauer; Fashion - Richard Avedon