Menu

Benedek Bognár: Cui Prodest

22 • 05 • 16Benedek Bognár

The photography grant created for commemorating the photographer, professional writer and photography teacher József Pécsi (1889–1956), was founded by the Ministry of Culture and Education in 1991. Its purpose is to help to start the career, creative work, and development of talented photographers working as independent artists, and to provide them with favorable conditions for the creation of high-quality artworks which are modern both in terms of form and content.

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

In my work titled CUI PRODEST, I approach the construction of the enemy as the main motif of conspiracy theories from the perspective of the current problems of our information environment.

In an era of fake news and disinformation, our view of the world is becoming blurred as the credibility of our information sources is called into question. With alternative facts, parallel and contradictory narratives, and mythmaking becoming a tool of power, there is a general distrust of mainstream explanations of the world.
In the resulting information chaos, new narratives are created that define world processes not along scientific paradigms, but by making irrational connections, projecting fears and desires, and creating images of the enemy.
I was experimenting with how photography can be used to model a suspicious gaze or a conspiracy theory logic that can detect the threat in the most ordinary things.

The series aims to reflect, through metaphorical representations of a paranoid society’s state of mind, the contradictory process by which people build a world around themselves that is far more threatening than reality, and in which they ultimately become their own enemy.

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest

0103

Photo: Benedek Bognár: From the series Cui Prodest