The environmentally friendly decay of the adobe houses of isolated, abandoned farmsteads provided the starting point for my work. With the series, Father Earth, I concluded my attempts to approach the farmstead as a way to look at the past, and went on to turn my lens on those who keep up the traditions of this way of life while adopting a reconsidered, modern stance.
I decided to concentrate on under-50 couples living in Csongrád County. I looked specifically for those who chose to live on a farm; they include bio-farmers, a stockbreeder, a landscape protection officer, a potter—they’re also people with families. They share a vision of bio-farming, permaculture and sustainability.
I felt inspired to represent these farmers and smallholders in their surroundings, with their characteristic attributes. The concept was to create staged photos, but that was not to interfere with the authenticity of the representation, the need to form a realistic image of the subjects, highlighting their unaffectedness. In the end, the portraits show them the way I see them. Defying the mainstream, the experience society’s attachment to comfort, these people are their own masters.
The photos I have taken reveal a certain understanding of liberty that few of us have a chance to feel. They also provide an image of humans living in symbiosis with nature, who use modern technologies to reshape the landscape of the Great Hungarian Plain.
(Marcell Piti)
