Phasebook is an artistic project that aims to provide a subjective but comprehensive picture about the Hungarian festival culture and its participants, year by year, by using the most diverse means of contemporary photography.

The homepage that is going to accompany this future project enables the people – who were photographed from subjective aspects of the artists – to share further information and pictures about themselves with other visitors of the site.

The photographers’ opinion together with the photographed people‘s shared information can be compared with the models’ self-concepts, and can also give opportunity for further survey of the Hungarian festival culture.

The English term ‘phase’ in the title has a double meaning. It refers to the actuality of these festivals as well as the technical nature of the project.

The Phasebook is also a reflection on the rapid growth and popularity of global public sites and the public culture that they create.

The first stage of this project took place at Sziget Fesztivál 2009. During the five days of the programme 79 people (from 16 countries) were photographed by the artists’ large format camera. The special technique – glass negative – requires long exposure time (ca. 5-10 seconds) that demands a static position from the models and an emotionless face-expression. The blank portraits – facing the camera or being captured from profile – give an opportunity for an analytic survey of the participants that can lead to a deeper understanding of the festivals itself. The artists aim to focus on the diversity of the Hungarian festival culture, give an overall picture of the various music- and trend-subcultures and represent faithfully the nationality- and age-range of the participants. Their aim is to present the divers masses through some specific faces.

The Phasebook was founded by Levente Kádár and György Károlyi during the summer 2009.

György Károlyi: www.flickr.com/gyorgykarolyi

Levente Kádár: www.flickr.com/kadarlevente