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Pécs Andante: new and special photo album about Pécs
Another beautiful photo album has been created to enrich the line of volumes introducing the city. The Lajos Kalmár (photo artist) and István Sz. Koncz author duo’s book Pécs Andante will be available in Hungarian and English and they will tell the stories of the city that will be the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2010.
Andante. The word marks a musical piece performed with moderate speed. It would be hard to find a better suiting title for the book – going through the 180 pages the reader can make a journey in a fabulous empire. One does not even have to travel far to do this because the Lajos Kalmár and István Sz. Koncz author duo invites the reader to the seat of Baranya county; Pécs for a magical journey by the help of sepia pictures that evoke calm archaic feelings.
While we admire Dzsámi in the evening light (old Turkish mosque – now Christian church on the main square) on one page, we can read a charming story about a boy on the next page according to whom the main square was cursed in 1956 by non-other than Molotov himself. On another page-pair we can see the shade of three people projected on the remains of the old tram railways on Jókai square while on the next we can read about the old times when the trams still ran in Pécs.
It is difficult to name the genre of the album because it is a photo album, guidebook, memoir and a storybook in one. The authors definitely love their city and their thinking and approach are as alike as their personalities differ – and this makes the album even more extraordinary. Lajos Kalmár choose his best and most beautiful pictures he has taken in the last 20 years and some he took recently to accompany István Sz. Koncz’s kind stories that all give account of philanthropy. The text of the book was translated to English by Mónika Dóla, the drawing that resembles the old town was made by István B. Gellér artist who will open his lifetime achievement exhibition in 2010 in Pécs; the Cultural Capital of Europe.