Aurora Király at Paris Phoro Art Fair 2024
Booth V2, Voices Section, curated by Sonia Voss
Location: Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France
Supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Romanian Cultural Institute Special thanks to our partner, LG Romania

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In Viewfinder series, Aurora Király revisits an archive of her early photographic work captured nearly two decades ago, at the beginning of her career. These images are taken in her studio, during artist residencies, or while traveling. We observe her reflective gestures, her confronting gazes into the lens, her reflection, or her shadow taking center stage. Often, we catch a glimpse of the camera she is holding, a recurring detail that blurs the boundary between subject and observer. Through the medium of analog photography, the artist transforms her personal space into a site of exploration and artistic investigation. In the late 1990s, when these photographs were created, the concept of the selfie had yet to emerge, leaving the self-portrait unmediated by the cultural shifts that have since redefined how we perceive and construct identity through images.
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In the project shown at Paris Photo, the artist revisits her analog photographs, framing them within schematically arranged cardboard 

volets. This process retraces the choices behind what we photograph, while leaving the imagination open to the long history of photography. 

​The viewfinder is a photographic device that allows the user to select from reality what will be shown in the final image. Using humble materials commonly associated with photographic archives (such as cardboard and adhesive tape), Király transforms photographic fragments from a past reality into a recent abstract fiction.
This approach investigates a range of conceptual layers: the act of framing in photography, the way an image from the past is perceived in the present, how a situation can be captured through photography or drawing, the tactile qualities of the materials themselves.

The evolution of the Viewfinder project can be traced through two related series. In Viewfinder Mock-Ups (2016-2019), the artist explores the construction of structures that mimic early cameras, using cardboard and cut-outs to frame an image - an enlarged photographic cliché engraved on plexiglass. The next stage, Viewfinder Clash (2020-2021), reflects on the multitude of possibilities and materials available today, in contrast with the negatives on silver gelatin dry plates. The images at the center of these objects are predominantly landscapes, a genre favored in the early days of photography.