Bence Földvári Varga, also known as “Husi,” has a passion for old digital cameras, which has also evolved into his business practice. He travels through diverse places to collect cameras that have been thrown away, lost, or, for reasons unknown, ended up in the drawers of other people or even on the dirty ground of organised waste collections and marketplaces. He makes profit by reselling them. At the same time, he has discovered another devotion in this process. Most cameras don’t come empty but they carry a vast collection of photographs depicting a person’s or family’s private life. He has become an enthusiastic gleaner of these images of important crossroads and intimate moments. Now, he has a collection of around 5,000 photographs. This is still an ongoing project, as long as it is possible to find these second-hand cameras on the grounds of markets. We asked him about the roots of his practice, the tendencies found in the collection and also on his views on private1 photography & his motives on collecting.
Husi at home with his camera collection
What do you do in your everyday life?
If I had to define my profession, I would say I work in social media marketing. However, I believe it is unfeasible in Budapest to focus solely on a single thing, so I am also involved in various other areas. I create graphics and videos–including editing, cinematography, and VFX–but fundamentally, event organizing is at the centre of my work. This includes organising parties and music management, aimed to build a cultural community within the Hungarian electronic music scene.
I am part of an organising team, where I handle specific tasks—such as with Family Fast2—I run everything on my own when it comes to organising. It is called ClubPunk3 and its goal is to showcase and shape post-internet aesthetics, as well as to embody a definite “fuck off” attitude to be truly punk. The biggest issue for me with Budapest’s punk scene is that I consider it a contrived, salon-punk phenomenon. ClubPunk attempts to react to this by serving as a platform that genuinely confronts the problems of the 21st century. These events feature topics that pose real burdens for today’s people and previous generations. These include MLMs, multi-marketing scams, or the exploitative attitude of commercial television towards the arts. Currently, we are organising an event that targets modern dating to highlight the dehumanizing nature of online dating platforms. We always strive to act counter-culturally while actively participating in the current cultural space. It is also extremely important for me that the performers we work with—which ties back to my marketing side—achieve proper visibility and an inclusive audience. We consciously avoid the situation where nothing happens but ten people just sitting in a basement just raging. Instead, we engage in genuine community building and create a structure that benefits the performers as well–rather than just being some “cultural circlejerk”.
When and how did you start collecting cameras? What inspired you to do this?
I worked at a marketing agency for a long time, and during that time, I began collecting digital and analog cameras. When that job ended, I realized that I had more cameras than I needed, so I started trading them. Initially, I slowly sold out my own collection, but then I noticed that the cameras are quite sellable and hot items recently. Thus, trading began alongside the collecting.
At first, I mainly visited markets and also browsed commercial platforms like Marketplace and Jófogás4. Now I have a better understanding of which markets are worth visiting both within and outside Pest County. I have developed my own market system: I maintain regular contact with several vendors, I have their phone numbers, and they have mine as well. If they get new cameras, they notify me, and I request pictures of them, then I decide whether I’m interested or not.
Overall, this is how I finance my own camera-collecting passion: while I collect, I also trade.
Was it a conscious decision to collect images in advance, or did it happen more by chance? Was there a specific turning point when this hobby developed into a more serious commitment?
When I bought my first second hand digital camera, I found an SD card in it. I inserted it into my PC and simply looked to see what was on it. All of a sudden I got a glimpse into someone’s life. At that moment, I realized that I wanted to collect and archive these found photos. On one hand, I find it entertaining that people leave these pictures on the cards; on the other hand, it’s a strange and interesting feeling to possess a piece of someone else's life.
So initially, I didn’t have this plan, but eventually, I’ve reached the point where I now try to consciously expand my collection. For example, if I see a camera at the market that I wouldn't buy, but it has a memory card, I will buy the card separately just to acquire more photographs—because most cards have definitely something on them. My fate was truly sealed when I got my hands on one hundred and fifty pictures plus a video of a naked man eating a chimney cake. (laughs)
To be honest, I feel like I’m peering into other people’s lives through a window. (Sorry, I need a moment to sell a camera because I set up a deal for this location. This happened completely by chance. Sorry, let me wrap that up quickly.)
Returning to the topic, I wouldn’t say that I don’t feel a bit perverse or strange about the whole thing, but it’s incredibly exciting to take a peek into others’ worlds. Clearly, it has a creepy vibe, but it really is like looking through a window to see how people live their lives. Because these photos often capture truly private moments: Christmas, birthdays, family events. Strangers wouldn’t have the chance to see these if they weren’t part of that family, invited to that event… or didn’t buy a used camera at a market.
Have you discovered any trends or connections among the photographs? Is there a particular period from which a notably large number of images originate? What kind of socioeconomic statuses are represented in the collection?
We can observe that the photographs began to emerge when digital cameras became affordable for the average person: this happened in the late nineties and early two thousands, so the photos span from 1999 to 2012/13. Of course, there are a few more recent images as well, because many older people still use these cameras out of habit, as they handle these machines more easily than smartphones.
In the early two thousands, digital photography was still largely considered a privilege. For a long time, film cameras, especially 'disposable' ones, were more common. I remember from my childhood that we used these much more than digital cameras at that time. I received my first digital camera,—which I still own today, —around 2006 or 2007; it was a small Samsung model. Honestly, I do not come from a wealthy family, and I received it as a birthday gift, so it was considerably a significant expense even in 2006 or 2007. We can say that in the early two thousands, it was still a privilege to own a decent quality compact camera.
The images also clearly show how socioeconomic circumstances have changed with time: for example, people traveling to Switzerland for vacation, photographing bottles of champagne: these earlier images reflect the caprices of the upper middle class, while the later images show a much more diverse representation. There are many vacation photos, such as in ski resorts where people are eating and enjoying the huts, but there are also images depicting extreme poverty: a wall with layers of dirt, a filthy child’s bed that is barely recognisable. Clearly, photography is fundamentally for everyone, so the images show authenticity in what kind of environment they were taken. Those who photographed family events are generally from the middle class, while those who captured these despairing environments likely come from less privileged environments or even disadvantaged groups. Overall, when considering the social aspects, those who purchased the cameras brand new tend to belong to the middle or upper middle class, while the "second-hand users" come from less privileged or disadvantaged backgrounds. Therefore, my collection is genuinely diverse, reflecting all kinds of lifestyles from the poorest to the upper middle class.
Is there a story that the images convey which you have developed a stronger attachment to? Can you highlight one that had a greater impact on you?
Each image carries a valuable story. I already mentioned the image of the slum, which really confronted me to face and to appreciate what I have in my life. Additionally, there are plenty of upper-middle-class individuals who go skiing in Austria and take a family picture where nobody is smiling. This is also a meaningful story from which everyone can draw their own conclusions. Just like the socialist realist pig's head in the Kádár cube5, where an old lady puts a slice of camembert in its mouth and olives in its eye sockets—she probably thought it would be like in cartoons where an apple is positioned in the pig's mouth.
All of these are social descriptions that are very striking. What truly intrigues me is that I can learn something from every image and gain insight into lives that can captivate me. We can also observe why these people are in certain situations and how they experience those circumstances. I couldn’t say that there is one story that stands out because each one is compelling; each conveys a lifestyle, a situation, a story.
What do you think, have their creators lost these photographs? Have you ever considered looking up and reaching out to their original owners?
I am sure that these are lost images. I believe there were very few instances in which they were intentionally removed from the cameras. If they had been transferred or downloaded, I assume the owners would have been aware enough to delete them from the SD card at the same time. But I believe about seventy percent of the collection is not possessed by the original creators, they do not own these images in any form. I have thought about trying to find the original owners, but there are several complicating factors here. For one, these pictures were taken at least ten or twenty years ago. There is very rarely any real personal information or recognizable place on them. I’m not a Geoguessr6 expert, I would have to go down to the Geoguessr Championship at Gólya and hire a few people to help me figure out where exactly the photos might have been taken. Putting the joke aside, obviously, it's difficult to pinpoint from inside something like a Kádár cube. The era can be determined based on clothing and the design of various products, but figuring out where the image was taken is more challenging. Even if I found them, they might feel ashamed that these photographs are possessed by me, because these are truly private pictures, their family photos. Of course, one could say that it was them who left them on the cameras, but I think from the moment I contact these people, the nature of these images simply transforms and gains a different meaning.
What does everyday photography mean to you? What is its essence that makes it important for you? Since you are also building an archive, why do you think it is a relevant pursuit to follow?
Fundamentally, what excited me about photography as a child is still what excites me now: the ability to capture that moment, that second, that hundredth of a second, and make it my own in a way that it will never happen again. Since it can never be repeated, that moment sustains in the form of an image, which provided stability for me as a child. For example, I was able to photograph my dog, and when I did that, afterwards I could go to bed and look at the picture of him. So, photography represents that stability, which this feeling provided and embodied for me. Later, when my dog passed away, it gave me a sense of security that the picture I took of him was there. Somewhere, I think the essence of private photography is to preserve those important moments, people we live with—or not necessarily people, but places, animals, anything that is relevant to us in life. And mostly because we want to feel the security that we haven’t missed the moment, that we haven’t missed the opportunity to take a photo of Grandma, and that her memory will remain. The essence of photography is also to capture what is happening; this is the minimum, but in private photography, I believe the most important intent is to create a sense of security. In my collection, most of the images depict family moments, vacations, and important memories. People fear that if they don’t take a picture, they will not have the chance later. There is a family photo where Grandma is still present, and a year later, we can only sense her absence. These also serve as guarantees that the memories will remain for future generations. Or that some silly kid in Budapest copies and saves it from an SD card; that could also be the grand final of the story…
With private images, we can gain insight into other people's lives, through which we can better understand our past. We can get a much clearer picture of what happened and how it happened ten, twenty, or even a hundred years ago. I see that through everyday stories, we can truly understand our past. A photograph is much more comprehensible and often says more than a rigid dissertation about the social situation of the time. I think it reveals much more about Hungarian poverty if I show someone that photo I mentioned about the dirty wall and they can sense the smell of it. That photograph means much more than starting to bark about Hungarian poverty.
Do you have a long-term plan or vision for your collection?
I want to continue collecting, even more, ten times as much, a hundred times as much. I want to show this to other people because I wouldn’t think I’m the only one interested in it. At the same time, I would consider the most worthy outcome to be if I put it all on an SD card and sold the entire collection together with a camera to someone. Of course, after archiving it, but in reality, I would prefer to put it all on an SD card and sell it. I would let the way it got to me to continue. It might get deleted, but in the end, that doesn’t matter.
All images used in the article are from Husi's collection, as described in the interview. The author, Júlia Alma Kerekes, is a participant in Eidolon's internship programme.
1 The term "private photography" (in Hungarian: privát fotó) is used in Hungarian photographic literature and media theory texts instead of "vernacular photography" or "everyday imaging" – this term essentially means the same thing, with a slight emphasis on the nature of these images, indicating that they were not intended for publication and analysis. The interviewee consistently used this form of the term, so we did not change his wording in the English translation.
2 Family Fast is a collective which organises events and parties in Budapest. Its core value is to sustain the development of alternative and politically engaged art practices.
3 Club Punk was created under the 1111 Record Label. Its mission is to represent experimental and peripheral electronic music and unconventional vocal performances.
4 Jófogás is a Hungarian online market platform for purchasing, connecting together the sellers and customers.
5 The Kádár cube is a square plan, generally around 100 square metres, mostly ground floor, tent-roofed family house type, which was built in Hungary from the early 1960s until the late 1970s.
6 GeoGuessr is a browser-based geography game in which players deduce locations from Google Street View imagery.
