“A couple of years after getting a B.A. in Cinematography, photography and media in Cluj-Napoca, I started working as a camerawoman at a regional studio in my hometown, Miercurea Ciuc, a Hungarian majority town in Transylvania, Romania. This year – 2014 – was also the start for collaborations – as a photographer – with journalist colleagues and publications on a local and regional level. Most of my freelancing work has been done in different parts of Romania, focusing on the region of Transylvania. Actually this is the place I know and understand the best”. – Zsuzsánna Fodor, winner 2022 VID Grant.

Zsuzsánna Fodor, 2021, Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely, The best they could. The best we can. (ongoing project). Stripped down.

Zsuzsánna’s ongoing project, with provisional title The best they could. The best we can. explores women’s roles and transgenerational patterns through her own relationships, some elusive stories of and from her grandmother. In her work Zsuzsánna also uses archival images from the magazine DolgozóNő – Working Woman, that was published in the Hungarian language in Romania between 1945 and 1989.

Dolgozó Nő (Working Woman), cover of June issue, 1963.
Zsuzsánna Fodor, 2021, Crișeni/Kőrispatak, Detachment, fear of intimacy, desire, dysfunctional relationships and the struggle to find one’s identity amidst a heavy solitude. An exploration through cyanotype.

“My interest for social and human rights issues in my photography came with the start of collaborations with newspapers, online news platforms and like-minded fellow journalists. The topics of these collaborations in the context of photojournalism were primarily minorities, gender and migration“. – Zsuzsánna Fodor, winner 2022 VID Grant.

Zsuzsánna’s work is very visually appealing. Her project is a personal story of women who are reexamining their own narrative in relation to the propaganda of the past. Often a neglected aspect of how we look at history, gender and societal development.

Zsuzsánna Fodor, 2021, Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda, A backyard with changing presence..
Dolgozó Nő (Working Woman), cover of October issue, 1976.
Zsuzsánna Fodor, 2021, Crișeni/Kőrispatak, Desire, tattoos and pigs. An exploration through cyanotype.

“My photography practice is shifting towards a more conceptual approach through which these topics are becoming more specific and more nuanced”. – Zsuzsánna Fodor, winner 2022 VID Grant.

Zsuzsánna Fodor, 2022, Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda, Incorporating natural materials. Once alive and vulnerable, they become hardened and preserved.
Zsuzsánna Fodor, 2020, Gheorgheni/Gyergyószentmiklós, The bed you make to lie in.
Dolgozó Nő (Working Woman), January issue, 1963. Női szemmel – Férfiszemmel / Through a woman’s eyes – Through a man’s eyes. A column where a woman and a man describe the same or very similar situations through their perspective. These discussions usually revolve around house work, the role of a man and of a woman in the household, at work and in a relationship.
Zsuzsánna Fodor, 2020, Brașov/Brassó, Text on screen: I love you, Kristina.

Zsuzsánna’s work looks critically at why people are a certain way. How do the past experiences of our community influence the roles we assume in our personal relationships? How did such magazines for women such as Dolgozó Nő – Working Woman relate to the people who were reading these magazines? The work also looks at excavation of archival materials whose primary purpose was propagandistic.

Zsuzsánna Fodor

“It is important to understand the personal stories in their historical context and to retell them at some point without feelings of guilt, blame, shame, fear or self-victimization. I am truly happy about being offered the VID Grant because it can help me explore these narratives through its mentoring process”. – Zsuzsánna Fodor, winner 2022 VID Grant.