In the 1980s Lenke Szilágyi made a name for herself as an idiosyncratic photographer. Although her work appears spontaneous, it is often a record of a performance. The human condition is central to her photography. In sharp black and white contrasts she documents fleeting moments of human existence, almost beyond capturing. The melancholy result emphasises the lonely and forlorn state of the individual. That can easily be seen as implicit critique of life in a system oriented to collectivism. Yet Szilágyi was never consciously a political activist. 'Conflict and dogmatism are alien to my personality,' the photographer has said. 'If I must choose a side, I side with culture and tolerance.'

Lenke Szilágyi (b. Hungary, 1959) has been active as a photographer in the worlds of film, theatre and the visual arts. She has had dozens of solo exhibitions and since 1990 has worked for the periodical Beszélö, which appeared illegally before the fall of the Iron Curtain.