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FROM THE BODY IN MOTION TO MOTION PICTURE ON THE OEUVRE OF JANOS EIFERT Thanks to Katalin Lőrinc Ars poetica “To me, photography is like playing a game. A very serious game. It also signifies the possibility of knowing the world, of encounters, new tasks, and the freedom to communicate my thoughts in my own visual language. To look - to see - and to render seeable: this is the mission of the photographer, as s/he balances on the edge of imagination and reality." Presenting the greatest merits of Janos Eifert’s multidirectional artistic oeuvre within the framework of ashort monograph is no easy task. His body of photographic work, for instance, in itself is so monumentally vast with so many different bifurcations, that restricting our discussion only to that would still require the ability to be extremely succinct. Eifert, however, is not only a photographer, but also a cultivator of various special areas of photography (e.g. diaporama). Furthermore, his activity as a specialist writer — which has an exclusively photographic aspect, as well as a portrait-writing strand - is virtually unparalleled. Furthermore, his suggestive and productive work as an educator is also exceptional. He has worked as a teacher, presenter, specialist writer and expert. And we have not even mentioned the uniqueness of his contribution and truly steadfast presence in the organizational system of Hungarian contemporary photography. In his own words: “Today, | am regarded as photographer (art photographer, dance-, nature-, nude-, commercial-, and applied photographer, light writer, diaporamist , expert writer, presenter, teacher).”? Janos Eifert is one of the best-known representatives and defining figures of his profession - of his art — both in Hungary and abroad. His oeuvre cannot be classified according to any unified stylistic categories. He has always experimented in different directions; his achievements in the field of art have always been consistent with his wide scope of interests. He is a multifaceted person with an experimenting disposition, constantly reinventing himself. He is an excellent photo reporter and a capturer of scenes from everyday life. He has been a greatly influential dance photographer since the beginning of his career. His nude photos, 21
