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Dave Orly (Geza Csosz)

No one knows who will be in the next photo.
I walk through the country.
I’m everywhere.
I see everything.
I see everyone.
I am invisible.”

Dave Orly (Geza Csosz) is a Hungarian-born English photographer. Even though he learned his lesson well in composing the accidental moment with precision, in manner of Cartier-Bresson or Josef Koudelka; he uses this knowledge from a rather original perspective. As often his children are the subject of his art, it is inevitably filled with love and intimacy. He does not force the style well learned, and the quasi spontaneity lends his pictures a unique aura, a differentiating feature.     “Things will work out just fine, if you let go.”     These moments of his, in addition to being spontaneous, are incredibly intense, at times even mysterious, or grim at others. They bear, however, no symbolism whatsoever: his abstractions are absolutely photogenic, and the message is the complex ambiguity of the reality behind these pictures. Geza completely trusts viewers to decipher it.

The key momentum of the aesthetic value is the density of the reference network of analogies within the work of art, i.e. only stylistic fiction can lend meaning to the documented reality in any form of art. Dave’s style has some banality and a touch of irony to it. These elevate what we see and scrape the ultimate questions.   “He who has a sense of humour knows everything, he who does not is capable of anything.     His “genre scenes” remind me of the world of Hrabal and Jindrich Streit, of the bitter irony that by the time we die, we could be quite good at living… I trust you to decide if this is the resigned scepticism against a petty, vulnerable life, or if it’s a way of posing wise and deeply critical questions. A speculative humanist is someone who, in theory and generally speaking, loves people, but does not love anyone in specific.  In Geza’s pictures I sense genuine attention and empathy towards others.

 Ordinary existence, in terms of art, is a rather thin medium, with a seemingly limited number of possibly aesthetic moments. Geza’s  faux naïf attitude led to surprisingly dense pictures, which have a total lack of academic tedium and boredom, pretentious surreal fantasies, or meaninglessness. Often, he entrusts everything on the atmosphere, at other times he just goes with the flow and leaves space for coincidence. It’s as if his attitude as an artist has a complete lack of intention. Actually, he is just very good at hiding it.  

Dave is definitely not a fundamentalist artist. His humility, intelligence, strong sense of aesthetics and his passionate commitment would make for an ideal combination in a perfect world… 

 Art does help you live, but what it doesn’t do is tell you how you can and should lead your life. Any artist is extremely vulnerable to isolation and loneliness, as there is no such thing as understanding, only misunderstanding.  You spring back from the concept of art, just like that of God. We think we know the meaning, but we have no idea, and yet this is our only refuge, our only chance of immortality: only art is more powerful than death.    

(Tibor Miltényi photoesthete)

Photoexhibitions

    2018 Weston-Super-Mare Black on Black (England)
    2017 Bristol-Portishead Black on Black (England)
    2016 Budapest, B.A.M (Hungary)
    2015 Budapest, Bálna (Hungary)
    2014 Budapest Spring Festival, National Dance Theater (Hungary)
    2014 Szeged, Szeged Spring Festival, Klauzál tér (Hungary)
    2014 Budapest, Budapest Spring Festival, Bálna (Hungary)
    2013 My Family and the Like by Géza Csösz – Grimm Gallery (Hungary)
    2013 Planete Femmes – Zsolnay Gallery (Hungary)
    2013 Planete Femmes – EDF Gallery (Hungary)
    2012 Paris, Institut français (France)
    2012 Szeged, Premature (Hungary)
    2012 TV viewers month of photography 2012 (Hungary)
    2012 Budapest, Institut français de Budapest (Hungary)
    2011 Budapest, Bazaar Club (Hungary)
    2011 Budapest, Ethnographic Museum „Duna” (Hungary)
    2011 en la Galería Mediadvanced de Gijón (Hungary)
    2011 Budapest, Örökmozgó Movie Museum – Felhoharapás (Hungary)
    2010 Budapest, Korolto Erzsébetvárosi Community Center (Hungary)
    2010 Cairo (Egypt)
    2010 Malaga (Spain)
    2010 Budapest, Korolto Parlament (Hungary)
    2010 Madrid, Ultravioleta (Spain)
    2010 Szeged, Korolto TIK (Hungary)
    2009 Budapest, Örökmozgó Movie Museum (Hungary)
    2009 Szeged, Grand Café (Hungary)
    2008 Budapest, Cervantes Intitut (Hungary)
    2008 Gyor, National Theatre (Hungary)
    2008 Month of photography – Autumn Festival (Hungary)
    2008 Budapest, Gödör (Hungary)
    2008 Budapest, Kossuth Club – month of photography (Hungary)
    2008 Szeged, Grand Café – A XXI. század Don Quijotéi (Hungary)
    2007 Szeged, Spring Festival (Hungary)
    2006 Szeged, Autumn Festival (Hungary)
    2003 Móra Ferenc Community Center (Hungary)
    2001 Tiszai Gallery (Hungary)

No one knows who will be in the next photo.
I walk through the country.
I’m everywhere.
I see everything.
I see everyone.
I am invisible.

©'Geza Csosz, 2020'