Between Shadow and Light

Between Shadow and Light is a photographic album presenting a selection of black-and-white photographs taken by Sándor Polgári between 2008 and 2012, during a formative period in his artistic development.

The book brings together urban scenes, landscapes, portraits, and fleeting encounters with light and shadow. Rather than documenting places or events, the photographs explore the relationship between the external world and personal perception. Each image emerges from a moment of attention, when an ordinary scene acquires an unexpected sense of presence and becomes a personal experience.

Photography played a fundamental role in shaping Polgári’s way of seeing, teaching him to recognise subtle tonal transitions, visual rhythms, and the expressive potential of seemingly incidental details. Although painting later became the central medium of his artistic practice, this photographic period remains an essential part of its origins.

Between Shadow and Light is both a visual record of a particular period and a reflection on the nature of seeing. Its images invite a slower encounter with the world, tracing the quiet space where landscape and memory, light and darkness, and the outer and inner worlds meet.