We first met in Sfantu Gheorge, Romania when he was 13-14 years old more than a decade ago. Then we caught up in Norway, UK, VietNam, Italy and last time in Portugal. I saw him grow up and become a young, talented, polite, rebellious man with solid roots and respecting traditions. I like watching the world through his lenses. He became a photographer, working in the fashion industry. We made this interview in a windy lobby of a Hotel in HaNoi in April 2019.
Marazinha: Now you are 25 years old. You were around 13 – 14 years old when we first met. So what type of experiences have you gained during this time?
Lehel: Maybe the most important thing is that you should know yourself and need to be open, very open towards everything and everyone, so then you can realise who you are actually. Even being open it’s not enough, you need to try everything you can in order to experience everything.
Marazinha: What was the experience that you consider as the best that could happen with you?
Lehel: When my final exam after high school was rejected. I was studying mathematics and informatics in high school. I wasn’t as good at maths as I was not so interested in. I can handle it, I know its logic, but if you are not interested in it, then you are not really doing it. When you are doing this final exam, you have to reach this 5 or 6 grade. I thought that maybe I could not do this maths exam, but then at last I was rejected in the Romanian language exam because instead of 5,50 I got 4,20. And everybody was really surprised about it, that what is going on, what is happening, you are not such an idiot guy that you cannot make it. And I wrote something totally different in the 3rd part of this exam and that’s why I got this grade. It was really strange you know, because everybody made it, everybody was really happy because everybody had finalised this and I was there just watching my friends celebrating. So all of my friends went to university, everybody was happy with all their stuff and I was still at home and everybody thought that I was an idiot. You know, when all people respect you, and then you do something bullshit like this, then everything just falls apart. It was a quite positive thing in my life, because from that point I have started to think in a totally different way. Of course, I have made my final exam successfully in the second exam after two months, it was not a problem. Then I have started to think more on the other stuff than the others actually. When you feel this struggle that everybody thinks about you that you cannot make it, then you want to show that they are not right.
Marazinha: So then just tell me how this boy, who had just failed in his final exam from the high school then passed it and chose a way to leave in a different way than his family had expected, just landed in London and became a fashion photographer at 25?
Lehel: That was my second or third failure! (laughing)
Marazinha: You have very successful failures then…
Lehel: I had my first biggest love in my life and it was after this period when you are going to university. I was in love. She wanted to go to a totally different city and study a totally different thing than me. And of course, we had totally different types of personalities. The idea was that I needed to choose, because I had entered to the University in both cities, one of them is the capital of Romania, Bucharest and the other one is Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely) is in the other part of Romania, but still both are big cities. I was selected for both places as a student without paying enrolment fee for my studies. I had to choose to go to the capital and follow my dreams or I will move to the smaller city and I will be with my love and we will live a beautiful life there together. And imagine, on that day when I received the result that I was selected to the smaller university and I do not need to pay for my studies, even though they pay me for my participation, I called my sister, Eva, and she told me that you are an idiot! You are young and go and follow your dream, because it will help you a lot! And you know, when she was telling me again that you are an idiot, and I have heard this before that I am an idiot, because I couldn’t take that exam, I was thinking that maybe she is right. Because that is what I want to do, so why not do it when I have the opportunity?! So I went to the capital, Bucharest! And you know what happens to your first big love and long distance relationship… Somehow when I started my studies there in Bucharest, I already felt that this is my path, because I already knew what it means being a photographer. It’s a craft. As all crafts, you have to learn from other craftsmen. You cannot learn it by yourself. You have to be there, you have to learn from the biggest names of the field and you have to assist them and see what is going on. You have to take and learn from them what you can. And I felt somehow that being a photographer, it can be interesting and maybe fits my personality. So this was how I entered into the photography business actually. I have started to assist, then I have realised that I am the manager of the second biggest rental studio in Bucharest.
Marazinha: How old have you been in that time?
Lehel: Uhm, 23 I think. But somehow I felt that I have to go! I have to go somewhere else and not live only for the money and I want to see and experience more, because I am still young. And this is how I came to London. I remember, it was January and I had just started to tell everyone around me and even to myself that I will go away from this country…And as I have started to do this, already a few months later I was in London.
Marazinha: Why did you choose fashion photography?
Lehel: I have tried every type of photography and this is the best for me, because I can do whatever I want. And I like to do whatever I want without any regulations. Gives me more freedom and space. I can express myself easier than in other types of photography.
Marazinha: And how do you see London?
Lehel: As now we are in VietNam, so it’s like a burger with rice. You know, it’s everything mixed. It’s too mixed. England it has the form as a burger and everything is mixed inside. It’s really multicultural. I come from Transylvania and I am following my roots also there. Maybe you know there are a lot of well-known Hungarian photographers from Transylvania, like Andre Dénes, Andor Kertész, Márton Munkácsy, etc. Some of them were born in Transylvania, studied there, etc. I am still going after my dreams in this world, I am still searching. Still I try to understand what is going on around me, actually. Still I am experiencing loads of things. Because I am still young. So still I am experiencing…pushing my boundaries.
Marazinha: Where do you see yourself after 10 years and what do you want to achieve?
Lehel: To be respected in the photography world. Respected internationally, I guess. I want to be more open minded and live in a multicultural surrounding. What I know for sure that I will be a cooler guy and I will have even more self-power. And for sure everybody says this, but I will make greater impact with my art than now. It is so interesting that I always tell myself that I am not an artist. And just right now when we are talking, I have just realised, that I am a fucking artist lost in the big jungle. I am that type of open guy that if you just call me right now and tell me here is an opportunity to do something now, I will go for that. I do not run hard after opportunities. I am always seeking what is on the table.
Marazinha: Who has inspired you most as a photographer?
Lehel: I have started with paintings, so I was influenced by painters before the photography came. Then I learnt a lot when I did my university studies on photography. First I made several drawings, paintings, so when I started to do photography, I wasn’t even thinking about it as an art or as a craft. I learnt a lot from Balint Hajagos for whom I have started to assist first. He is an advertising photographer from Budapest, Hungary. He has really helped me a lot in this way and I have learnt a lot from him on photography, from the art of photography, about this business, how to earn money from this. So maybe he is one of the most important people in my career in this sense. If we are talking about fashion photography, there is the biggest Romanian fashion photographer who is living in Berlin right now and he has made the Balmain campaign last year, Dan Beleiu. He has helped me a lot, because I was assisting him as well and he introduced me to a lot of stuff in this fashion world and fashion business. And maybe the third name is again a Hungarian photographer, who I met in London. He is Marton Perlaki. I have learnt from him that I should forget all the roots and traditions I have gained before and put it in a box, open a new page in front of me, and write down what I feel. And write it down what I want now. Not about what I want after 10 years, but what I want right now, what I feel, how I want to photograph it. Just try it to show to the others. Show it why I am shooting this, why I am shooting that! Just follow this type of psychological thinking behind the photography. So maybe these three people are the most important in my photography right now. I guess after 10 years, there will be more people…(laughing) and I hope we can also discuss them then!
Marazinha: I will take that as a promise!
Photos: https://www.kelemen.one/
Venue: Rocce rosse, Arbatax, Tortoli, Sardinia
Special thanks to Associazione Vele Corsale from Sardinia, Tortoli, Italy!
