In January 2018, a photography-based art therapy and experiential education project was launched for minors living in the care of the Bolyai Foster Home Center – photographers and photo artists worked together with children to produce photographs and other photo-based artworks to help the self-expression and self-understanding of the young participants.

The Experiencing Images workshop series was led by photographer and art therapist Tamás Hossala collaborating with ten Hungarian photographers. These participants were Orsolya Ajpek, Szabolcs Barakonyi, Máté Bartha, Tamás Dobos, Gáspár Kéri, Simon Móricz-Sabján, Éva Rozovics, Bernadett Szabó, Lilla Szász, and Éva Szombat.

The Experiencing Images program was complemented with children activities workshops by DEMOWOOD as well as fairy tale therapy sessions by Edina Lentulay. The Experiencing Images show in Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center presents the course and the developments of this almost one-year-long educational program and the works created in its framework.

I integrated more than twenty years’ experience in this project gained as an artist photographer and childcare professional and I see it as a fruitful outcome of a strange crossover of art and care work. I am committed to producing quality artworks throughout the photographic process both regarding the children and the participant photographers. The young participants living in childcare are starting their lives at a disadvantage and I am convinced that we can contribute to the diminution of this handicap by the realization of this project using all our personal and professional knowledge as well as high-quality tools. In the course of the collaboration of photographers and pupils we were exploring the limits and capabilities of photography.

(Tamás Hossala)