Budapesti Éjszaka
Budapest Hungary
2011
Probably the most famous fine art photographer from Budapest was Gyula Halász, better known as Brassaï. While he was born in Hungary and studied art in Budapest, at age 25 he moved to Paris where he learned photography and gained his reputation. Perhaps his most notable work, certainly my favorite, was the book Paris et Nuit (Paris by Night). It is some of the most compelling street photography I’ve ever seen. Since he skipped covering his home country in the same photographic manner, I guess I’m free to latch onto the similar Hungarian translation, Budapesti Éjszaka, for my Budapest by Night photos. It is easy to get night photos here, even for someone who is used to going to bed fairly early. Due to a strange assignment of time zones it gets dark in Budapest by 4:30 p.m. or 1630 as they say here. Also, my body still seems to think midnight is really sometime in the early afternoon in the U.S. anyway.
I like this. It’s “perfectly picturesque” …the wide range of tones and a balance of curved to straight lines… even a brightly lit window on the dark upper story wall. Interesting place. Since U.S. time will be “falling back” Sunday, the mix of that with the strange Budapest time zones and jet lag may make getting back to normal at home interesting.
Thanks Betty. Hungary went off daylight savings time the day we were flying here. So they went from being eight hours ahead of the U.S. to only seven. In theory I think that means our jet lag was less? In any case, I slept until 10 a.m. the first night we spent here. That’s the latest I’ve slept since I gave up the occasional late night partying years ago.