All of my Gypsies

When Slovakia was visited by the British Queen Elisabeth II, nobody showed her the gypsy villages. However, she received the first issue of Huszár’s new book with a brief title Cigáni (Gypsies).

Nobody knows the accurate number of Romani living in Slovakia, the estimates generally state approximately half a million. And even though the media reports make it look as though all of them live in shanty villages, only one in four Slovak Romani actually lives in such a poor environment.

The villages are visited neither by the Queen nor by the rest of the population and often not even by the Romani who grew up outside the villages and who have nothing in common with this world. The villages are visited only by social workers, various missionaries and of course news reporters and photographers. However, only a few of them have been doing such for so very long and on such a regular basis as Tibor Huszár – the first pictures in his book were taken at the end of the 1960s.

Without the dates under the photographs you would often have problems guessing – the world of the poor does not change as fast and the ramshackle houses have a certain timeless feeling. You don’t see the new architectural trends or new materials and the same is somewhat true about the people that live in them.

This, however, does not mean that there have been no changes in the lives of these people in recent years. They were most affected by the changes brought into play by the fall of the communism, which among other things brought record unemployment and record emigration to the West. Several thousands ended up in Canada or in Scandinavia, but most settled in Ireland and in Great Britain.

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In Slovakia, the politically correct term “Romani” has been in use now for several decades. However, they often refer to themselves as Gypsies, in which this is also the term used in Huszár’s book. From a person who lived with them you can be sure that it is not a defamatory term.

Tibor Huszár states that he did not have problems photographing the Gypsies, since he has been cooperating with them for many years. “I lived among them, so they viewed me as a part of themselves,” he says. In his opinion, society should help them, the current level of help is not enough, he says. He is also critical of insufficient help from the church. It is, therefore, paradoxical that most Romani are rather religious.

Huszár’s photo­graphs balance at the edge of art, and they document the black and white pictures that capture life from birth until death. Compared to the rest of society the Romani are much more emotional – as seen in their weddings and funerals but also in the way that they play football.

Contrary to the rest of society, the Romani still have many children and their average age is relatively low. There is always a heap of children outside in the villages, the negative side of this statistic is reflected by the fact that the Romani from villages live, on average, 15 years shorter than the rest of society.

Even though Tibor Huszár has devoted decades to this topic, it is by no means his only theme. Currently, he is working on a book of photographs on Paris where his studio is located. As a photographer, he has travelled to dozens of countries – from the former Soviet Union through to China and Japan, the Middle East, North and South America and Africa. He participated in films such as Milos Forman’s People vs. Larry Flynt. This year his photographic plan includes a return to Slovakia, in which he is working on a book for the Velvet Revolution anniversary. Twenty years since the fall of the communism, the people will see not only his famous photographs but also his unpublished work.

Author: Jan Gregor
Photo: T. Huszar

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