Hungarian Jazz and Musicians in the Southern Hemisphere - László Dormán photo exhibition - opening

László Dormán graduated from the music college in Újvidék. From 1967 he was a photojournalist for the Újvidék Képes Ifjúság, then an editor and presenter of the night programs of Újvidék Radio. From 1974 he hosted a Hungarian-language jazz program on the local radio. He was a member of the Újvidék Jazz Days Council. In 1993 he moved to Hungary, where he became a reporter and editor for Hungarian Radio. He became known primarily for his socio- and reportage photos, his recordings of the battles in South Baranya, and his jazz photos. He also worked in applied photography (book, record and CD covers, advertising photos, illustrations, posters, etc.).

 

"Perhaps all I can say about myself is that I was born on All Souls' Day, November 2, 1944, in Hungary: in Bácskossuthfalva, Ómoravica, Stara Moravica, just when the Hungarian authorities had already abandoned Bácska and the partisans were working in the Hungarian villages to avenge the 1942 Újvidék raid. And to secure the Slavic character of the region, the Slavic majority. My awakening, however, took place in Tito's Yugoslavia, of which I knew nothing and perceived very little, since everyone in our village spoke Hungarian. I attended the Hungarian section of the Subotica high school all the way through, and during that time I also completed music studies in the trombone department, and then - in Serbian - I obtained a music teacher's diploma at the Belgrade Academy of Music's branch in Újvidék. From the end of the 1960s, I was the editor of the weekly newspaper of Hungarian youth in Yugoslavia, the Photojournalist, journalist and editor of Képes Ifjúság. At that time, the best jazz festivals were established in this part of the world, first in Slovenia, on the shores of Lake Bled, then in Ljubljana, soon after in Belgrade, then in Újvidék, Szeged. The photos shown here were mostly taken at these festivals. When in 1988, the Hungarian-language broadcast of Újvidék Radio was expanded to 24 hours a day with the introduction of the night program, I transferred here from the youth daily, becoming one of the editors and presenters of the live broadcast from midnight to five in the morning. Needless to say, a lot of jazz was heard in these programs as well. I already had practice in it, since I hosted jazz programs on the Újvidék Radio wavelength from 1974, for a good decade and a half, until the winds of war began to blow. However, because of my anti-war stance, I was banned from live shows, and my jazz show was taken off the air at first. The charge against me was “anti-war incitement.”

 

I moved to Hungary with my family in 1993. At that time, I couldn’t find much work as a photographer, so I was accepted by the editorial staff of the Hungarian Radio program Our Homeland. This program, which has since been discontinued, was aimed at the Hungarian diaspora living all over the world, but it was already broadcast on Kossuth Radio’s Without Borders, which is still broadcast daily today. I was given a regular job in its editorial staff as a reporter, editor, and host. I was fired from there in the major reorganization in 2011. I have been retired since then.

As a photographer, I have participated in hundreds of collective exhibitions in our narrower environment and in the wider world, I have received a good number of awards, I have also had solo exhibitions, but whether this is actually my nth solo exhibition here, I cannot say, not even in terms of jazz photos.

For my decades of journalistic and editorial work, and for my activities in the fields of photography and applied photography, I received the Knight's Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit in 2012, in 2017 my work as a photojournalist, journalist and editor was recognized by the Hungarian Cultural Association of Vojvodina with the Hungarian Tree of Life Award, and in 2022 I was able to receive the annual award of the Hungarian Academy of Arts at the Pesti Vigadó."