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Tropical Depression (signed, book+print)

by Gabor Arion Kudasz

Photographs: Gabor Arion Kudasz

Publisher: self-published

132 pages

Pictures: 62 duotone illustrations

Year: 2024

ISBN: 978-615-02-1505-1

Price: 148 €

Comments: 500 numbered copies. Softcover, dust jacket, cellophane protective shield. Size: 20 x 28 cm

The title Tropical Depression refers to the meteorological term for rainy, high-pressure areas where destructive storms and notorious typhoons form. However, the use of the word depression also deliberately alludes to the mental state, linking both physical and emotional turmoil.

In the winter of 2019, less than a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent several months in Vietnam. The timing of the trip was deliberate, as it coincided with the preparations for the second summit between the United States and North Korea and Vietnam's most important holiday, the Chinese Lunar New Year. In this setting, I saw an opportunity to explore the ambitions and concerns of young people in a foreign culture.

This book draws inspiration from various literary sources, from Michel Houellebecq to Nguyen Du. When I arrived in Hanoi, I was given a photocopied manuscript of János Háy’s travel essay Full Suitcase, Empty Heart. The disillusioned, monologizing European hero facing an existential crisis in Háy’s work profoundly impacted my photographic work. Additionally, one of my hosts, Truong Dang Dung, gifted me a Hungarian translation of The Tale of Kieu, a 19th-century Vietnamese literary classic, translated by Dezső Tandori. Nguyen Du’s epic poem tells the story of the beautiful Kieu, chronicling her sacrifices, betrayals, moral struggles, and ultimate redemption, with its tragic elements deeply rooted in the familial connections typical of Vietnam.

February, gray with gasoline fumes and wet from rain, marked an emotional low for me. My depression deepened with each new story I heard, every instance of overpopulation and environmental destruction I witnessed, and the growing signs of a then-undefinable global emergency. Mold damaged all my exposed film, and my work seemed to fall apart. In the images of Tropical Depression, I expressed my uncertainty about reality and my creative and personal crisis, gathered from the depths of my being at the time, through imagined stories and conditional travel logs.

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look inside

Tropical Depression (signed, book+print)

by Gabor Arion Kudasz

Photographs: Gabor Arion Kudasz

Publisher: self-published

132 pages

Pictures: 62 duotone illustrations

Year: 2024

ISBN: 978-615-02-1505-1

Price: 148 €

Comments: 500 numbered copies. Softcover, dust jacket, cellophane protective shield. Size: 20 x 28 cm

The title Tropical Depression refers to the meteorological term for rainy, high-pressure areas where destructive storms and notorious typhoons form. However, the use of the word depression also deliberately alludes to the mental state, linking both physical and emotional turmoil.

In the winter of 2019, less than a year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent several months in Vietnam. The timing of the trip was deliberate, as it coincided with the preparations for the second summit between the United States and North Korea and Vietnam's most important holiday, the Chinese Lunar New Year. In this setting, I saw an opportunity to explore the ambitions and concerns of young people in a foreign culture.

This book draws inspiration from various literary sources, from Michel Houellebecq to Nguyen Du. When I arrived in Hanoi, I was given a photocopied manuscript of János Háy’s travel essay Full Suitcase, Empty Heart. The disillusioned, monologizing European hero facing an existential crisis in Háy’s work profoundly impacted my photographic work. Additionally, one of my hosts, Truong Dang Dung, gifted me a Hungarian translation of The Tale of Kieu, a 19th-century Vietnamese literary classic, translated by Dezső Tandori. Nguyen Du’s epic poem tells the story of the beautiful Kieu, chronicling her sacrifices, betrayals, moral struggles, and ultimate redemption, with its tragic elements deeply rooted in the familial connections typical of Vietnam.

February, gray with gasoline fumes and wet from rain, marked an emotional low for me. My depression deepened with each new story I heard, every instance of overpopulation and environmental destruction I witnessed, and the growing signs of a then-undefinable global emergency. Mold damaged all my exposed film, and my work seemed to fall apart. In the images of Tropical Depression, I expressed my uncertainty about reality and my creative and personal crisis, gathered from the depths of my being at the time, through imagined stories and conditional travel logs.

More books by Gabor Arion Kudasz