Sections, 2016-2022, archival pigment prints, photographs taken of vegetal segments on 19th-century British and French microscopic slides, ©Tamas Dezső

On display at Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center until 12 March, 2023.

Tamás Dezső explores the self-identity of all living things, including humans, in his latest work. What is the mysterious and inexplicable link that binds all the living personalities together for a lifetime? Physically, we are in a state of constant change: like other living things, almost all the molecules in the human body are constantly being replaced by new ones. Intellectually, we are also in a constant state of flux: our way of thinking changes throughout our lives. What does identity consist of? How can we call ourselves the same person all the time, despite all these changes? There are more differences than similarities between our tens and fifties selves. A seed and the tree that grows from it seem to have nothing in common, yet we are talking about the same living organism.

In the context of the ecological crisis, it has become imperative to treat plants according to their importance, and to make a serious effort to understand the fragile plant existence alongside human identity, amidst a nagging sense of ever-deepening belatedness. And not merely because our very existence depends on them and depends on them.

Text by István Virágvölgyi, curator