A Witness to Change: Piroska Nagy's Photos of Hungary
Nagy, born in the United States to parents who fled Hungary after the revolution of 1956, moved to Hungary in 1980 to study at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.
Her father, the late Dr. Karoly Nagy, a participant in the revolution and later the founder of the Hungarian school in New Brunswick, New Jersey and an active member of the Hungarian-American diaspora, encouraged Piroska to observe and to take part in the changes going on around her in Hungary. Piroska did more that that: she ended up documenting Hungary’s transition to democracy over the span of three years. Her photos show courage, creativity, and a real civic involvement in the events that brought an end to nearly 40 years of dictatorship under the Soviet system. Nagy’s photos were published in Western and Samizdat publications between 1988 and 1990 and have since been included in various online collections, including that of the 1956 Institute in Budapest. The photos have also been published in a Kieselbach Gallery book, Years of Euphoria, 1988 – 1990.
Nagy took her last picture documenting the transition in 1990, after the first official session of the new, democratic parliament. She now teaches Hungarian culture and the history of communism in the region and especially Hungary to foreign students at the American International School of Budapest.