In 2020 and 2023, Péter Korniss, one of the most influential figures in Hungarian photography, donated 63,000 items from his archives to the Central European Research Institute for Art History.
The oeuvre of Korniss, who was the first photographer ever to be awarded the Kossuth Prize, focuses mainly on documenting the disappearing traditional peasant life and culture of Eastern Europe (mainly Transylvania). As part of the archive, the KEMKI has also received the complete collection of film negatives from The Guest Worker, one of the most influential series of Hungarian documentary photography. The series, which depicts the life of commuting workers, took over 10 years to complete. Published in 1988 in a book format, Korniss’s “photographic novel” is considered one of the milestones of contemporary Hungarian photography. The material donated to the KEMKI ADK Photo Archives includes black and white negatives, colour slides, contact sheets, prints and digital images. Additionally, a significant amount of books and press material have been donated to the institution, including articles, essays and studies published in Hungary and abroad, exhibition invites, as well as video and audio materials. Part of this material will be accessible for research digitally, while some will be made available in a printed format.
The archive is currently being processed, a detailed database and around 4,000 scanned photographs will soon be available to researchers. Further expansion of the archives is expected in the near future.
