Attila Pőcze, owner of Vintage Gallery
MúzeumCafé 13.
Attila Pőcze has managed Vintage Gallery in Magyar Street, Budapest, for 13 years. It could be simply called a photographic gallery but it would not be true. In addition to photos, works inspired by photographs are in focus; artists represented by the gallery include Balázs Beöthy, Gábor Gerhes, Tibor Gyenis and Dezső Szabó. In November Vintage Gallery will exhibit at the Paris Photo fair for the 10th time. “For a long time having my own gallery didn’t occur to me. I was happy working in the Museum of Hungarian Photography and the Mai Manó House. Both had excellent teams. After the Technical University I got a scholarship in the Museum of Hungarian Photography. The then director, Károly Kincses, taught cultural anthropology at Eötvös Lóránd University. A friend attended and I heard about it through him. I joined a summer course and stayed. During my three years in Kecskemét I took part in organising several exhibitions. I saw how they were set up, while I processed the pictures arriving in the museum and arranged the archives. I did all sorts of jobs – it was the best possible school. “In 1996 when I opened my own gallery, photographs were still not regarded as works of art by the general public. Then the Gallery of Photography opened followed by the BOLT Gallery in 1996. The first private art galleries were opening at the time, which sometimes in passing also displayed photographs. I don’t look at art basically from the commercial aspect. I’ve always felt that art with a photographic basis interests me and if I show exciting and novel works the market will also take notice of them. “The contemporary artists represented by Vintage Gallery cannot be called photographers. They are artists who often apply photographs in their work.