Project in development · exhibition planned after completion
EUFÓRIA — The Anatomy of Presence
20 people · 20 found moments · the cycle is complete only when all twenty works exist
What is EUFÓRIA?
EUFÓRIA is a photographic project about twenty people of Hungarian origin and twenty found moments. I look for the point where a public role gives way to something personal — in a gesture, a gaze or an unguarded movement.
EUFÓRIA is in development. The exhibition has no confirmed venue or date; it remains planned until all twenty works are made and documented.
Why it began
The concept
“Photography, for me, is not documentation but a state of being. A state of mind. Presence. Pure force.”
There is a duality that has run through my whole life. I am an applied photographer — and an artist. Commissions, deadlines, briefs on one side; inner visions, silences, questions on the other. For years those two worlds ran in parallel, sometimes against each other, sometimes feeding each other. Today I know I never had to choose. That tension made me who I am, and EUFÓRIA is where both finally point in the same direction. Not a closure. An arrival.
The idea came from my muse. She is the one who walked this road with me and believed in what I do even when I did not quite believe it myself. Her passion is dance. When she dances something breaks free — in her, and in the room. Energies move that can shake the saddest person awake and pull them back into life. I have lived through that state beside her more times than I can count. Only now do I understand that I am ready to create inside that vibration. Not to shape it. Not to filter it. To give it back, unveiled.
How I make the pictures
I look for moments that cannot be directed or repeated. In a shared session, conversation and trust make room for them; at a public event, I work with the situation as it unfolds. The image enters the project when the person, the moment and my attention come together.
What presence means here
Here, presence means the point at which a person becomes more than the role we recognise. The project connects the body, identity and public life without reducing a portrait to an illustration of status.
This will not be a classical photography exhibition but a total work of art — image, music, technology and human stories in one space. Twenty works. I do not begin with a list of people: I look for moments. A person enters EUFÓRIA when the person, the situation and my photographic presence converge strongly enough to become an autonomous work. The exhibition remains a plan until all twenty moments have been found, photographed and documented.
“This exhibition is also an homage. Robert Capa believed that if you are close enough to a person, the picture will be true. EUFÓRIA is the continuation of that faith, told in my own language.”Continuously updated gallery — Flickr
Twenty works · project in development
01 · Péter MagyarCompleted · documented
02 · AzahriahCompleted · documented
03 · Ádám FellegiCompleted · documented
04 · Péter BenceCompleted · documented
05–20 · Moments still to be foundSixteen further moments — and the people within them — enter the project only when they are found, photographed and their context can be documented.
Work Nº 1
Péter Magyar — Heroes’ Square, Budapest, 15 March 2026, 16:57
The first work places the project’s question inside a public gathering: one face, one gaze and one found moment at Heroes’ Square.
Details and documentation
Person and context
The person
Péter Magyar ↗
Péter Magyar is a Hungarian lawyer and politician and leader of the TISZA (Respect and Freedom) Party. He served in the European Parliament from July 2024 until May 2026 as a member of the European People's Party group. At the time of the portrait on 15 March 2026, he was a prominent opposition political figure. After the April 2026 parliamentary election, Hungary's National Assembly elected him prime minister on 9 May 2026. That subsequent public office is relevant to the image's later circulation, but it does not turn the earlier photograph into an official prime-ministerial portrait.
Photograph record
- Date
- 2026-03-15 · 16:57:25 +01:00
- Place
- Hősök tere, Budapest
- Photographer
- Bánhalmi Norbert
Artistic reading
The moment
I made this portrait at Heroes’ Square in Budapest on 15 March 2026 at 16:57, while Péter Magyar was speaking at a public gathering. I kept one face and one gaze from a much larger scene. That concentrated encounter became the first publicly released work of EUFÓRIA.
Why it belongs in EUFÓRIA
The photograph brings the project’s question into public life: how can one face remain a human presence under the weight of a familiar public role? This is an artistic reading of the image, not a claim about the subject’s inner state.
Sources and provenance
Historical and artistic context
The photograph was made at 16:57:25 on 15 March 2026 during a public national-day gathering at Heroes' Square in Budapest. Its close framing isolates the subject's face, dark Bocskai-style jacket and national cockade from a much larger crowd. Made independently rather than as an official commission or campaign photograph, it became EUFÓRIA's first work: the presence of a single person within a public event.
The photograph's public afterlife
Following its publication on Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0, the portrait circulated through Wikipedia editions, the subject's Wikidata image statements and international editorial contexts. The Commons community assessed it as a Quality Image, a distinction from Featured Picture status. The pre-existing press register contains ten linked instances of publications or credited uses, not ten identical cases: image reuse, broader reporting, an interview and writing focused on the photograph's origin. None of these should be mistaken for a commissioned official portrait or unanimous editorial endorsement.
Public reuse by the depicted person
Three distinct Facebook photo links connected to the reported public reuse of this portrait were supplied by the photographer. The third photo ID matches a previously documented reuse dated 12 April 2026; the other two dates and the exact Facebook content remain independently unconfirmed because Facebook restricted retrieval. The three links document a source trail, not three externally verified post dates or a commission, political affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement.
Traceable public records
The picture’s own life
When I released the portrait under CC BY-SA 4.0, I made it possible for others to reuse it. It travelled into Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Wikidata and editorial publications. From then on, I no longer chose every context in which it would be seen.
Public circulation
The afterlife of a single frame
- 15.03.2026, 16:57 — The photograph is made in golden-hour light at Heroes’ Square; the exact timestamp and geolocation stay in the metadata.
- 21.03.2026 — First critique: “The anatomy of presence — a gaze that stops time.”
- 04.04.2026 — The first-party project essay ↗ reports the portrait’s early circulation on X. Two source-specific links are now preserved: @thebearpundit’s post (05:29, Budapest time) ↗ and John Cleese’s later post (23:31) ↗. Both status IDs encode 4 April 2026. The posts’ texts, attached media, repost relationship and reach cannot yet be independently retrieved; neither post implies endorsement.
- 12.04.2026 — Péter Magyar’s public Facebook page reused the same portrait; the reuse is documented as circulation of the photograph, not as evidence of endorsement, commission or a client relationship.
- 24.04.2026 — The image is reinterpreted as a painting on canvas.
- May 2026 — The image appears as a lead portrait of Péter Magyar in multiple Wikipedia language editions and among the images on his Wikidata item.
- 25.05 – 10.06.2026 — Kiskegyed reports the image's story; Rólunk.at interviews me about the motivation behind it.
Work Nº 1 · verified provenance
Péter Magyar portrait — authorship, provenance and documented circulation
Norbert Bánhalmi photographed Péter Magyar at Heroes’ Square, Budapest, on 15 March 2026 at 16:57. The photograph is the first publicly released work of EUFÓRIA — The Anatomy of Presence. Wikimedia Commons records it as Bánhalmi’s own work under CC BY-SA 4.0 and identifies Norbert Banhalmi as creator with the role photographer.
The Commons community promoted the photograph to Quality Image status in April 2026. This is distinct from Featured Picture status: the later Featured Picture nomination was not promoted. The Commons file is also connected through structured data to the EUFÓRIA project and to the depicted subject.
Documented reuse includes Wikimedia/Wikipedia contexts and external editorial or public reuse. These uses document circulation of the photograph; they do not imply political endorsement, campaign commissioning, client status or any relationship beyond the evidenced photographic authorship and reuse.
Where the picture travelled
The ten records below distinguish image reuse, reporting, interviews and contextual references. Open them to follow the portrait’s public circulation; publication or sharing does not imply endorsement, commissioning, client status or agreement with an article.
10 documented publications and image credits
- Die Weltwoche — „Ein talentierter Schlawiner“ (09.04.2026)
- The Hungary Report — Opinion: The End of the Strongman Spell (30.03.2026)
- American Thinker — critical commentary (27.03.2026)
- SOTA — report in Russian (13.04.2026)
- The Brussels Times
- Eastern Herald
- Spectre Journal — The Hungarian Spring
- Politics UK — A new dawn for Hungary
- Kiskegyed — the story of the photograph (25.05.2026)
- Rólunk.at — interview on the motivation (10.06.2026)
Two further international sources from the professional archive — exact image credit pending independent recheck
The linked records below identify the work and lead to its documentation in the archive.
Authorship record and project documentation
Documented public record
Sources connected to this chapter
These links document how the project, book or exhibition entered public life. They are selected for their direct relationship to this record, rather than presented as a general press list.
A portrait beyond the photographer’s control
The image’s public circulation adds another question to the work: how does meaning change when a portrait becomes a shared visual reference? Its reuse is documented below. That record establishes circulation and attribution; it does not establish political influence, endorsement, a commission or affiliation.
Work Nº 2
Azahriah — Heroes’ Square, Budapest, 10 April 2026
This second work places the same question in a live performance: a person, a gesture and the attention of a public gathering. The portrait of Azahriah was made at Heroes’ Square, Budapest, on 10 April 2026.
The background and linked records below locate this photograph within the performer’s public image.
Details and documentation
Person and context
The person
Azahriah · Attila Baukó
Azahriah (Attila Baukó) is a Hungarian singer-songwriter and performer whose rise from online creator to arena-scale artist became one of the defining stories of contemporary Hungarian popular culture. In 2024 he became the first Hungarian artist to fill the Puskás Arena on three consecutive nights; 138,890 tickets were sold across the three concerts. Contemporary cultural coverage interpreted the unprecedented run not only as a music-industry record, but also as evidence of a new generation taking visible possession of the country's largest cultural spaces.
Photograph record
- Date
- 2026-04-10
- Place
- Hősök tere, Budapest
- Photographer
- Bánhalmi Norbert
Artistic reading
The work considers presence within live performance.
Sources and provenance
Knowledge-graph circulation
The photograph has moved beyond the project page into Wikimedia's public knowledge infrastructure. Wikimedia Commons records reuse on the English and Volapük Wikipedia articles for Azahriah and on Wikidata items Q109626459 and Q138717398. Azahriah's Wikidata item includes this photograph as an image statement with 10 April 2026, Heroes' Square, creator Norbert Banhalmi and a structured link to Euphoria – The Anatomy of Presence.
Public circulation
Further press and contextual documentation is being collected. The Wikimedia uses documented above remain part of the existing record.
Work Nº 03 · Completed · documented
Ádám Fellegi — Haus der Musik, Vienna, 24 September 2026
Fellegi’s Vienna Beethoven programme brought a concert pianist and audience into close contact. This photograph follows presence through performance, without attributing an inner state to its subject.
Details and documentation
Person and context
The person
Ádám Fellegi ↗
Ádám Fellegi is a Hungarian concert pianist whose work combines the classical repertoire with direct dialogue with audiences. He studied at the Liszt Academy in Budapest and was a permanent piano soloist with Hungary's National Philharmonia from 1970 to 1990. His recordings include twentieth-century music, and since 1994 he has also held intimate apartment concerts in Budapest, introducing and explaining the works he performs. On 24 September 2026 he presented an interactive Beethoven evening at Haus der Musik in Vienna, a setting that brings this long-standing conversational approach to an institutional concert stage.
These are independently authored photographic works. Their inclusion in EUFÓRIA and their circulation on Wikimedia do not imply a commission, sponsorship or endorsement by the performers.
Photograph record
- Date
- 2026-09-24
- Place
- Haus der Musik, Wien
- Photographer
- Bánhalmi Norbert
Artistic reading
Curatorial reading: a performance becomes a human encounter between pianist, gesture and audience. This interpretation concerns the photograph, not the musician's private emotional state.
Sources and provenance
Artwork record, source and person identifiers
Public circulation
Ádám Fellegi — documentation in progress. Further records of publications, reuse and the photograph’s developing story are being collected. This status does not imply that any such use has occurred.
Work Nº 04 · Completed · documented
Péter Bence — MVM Dome, Budapest, 10 October 2026
At MVM Dome, Bence appears at a Steinway & Sons grand piano, in white under blue-violet stage lighting. The photograph isolates a brief gesture within an arena-scale performance.
Details and documentation
Person and context
The person
Péter Bence ↗
Péter Bence is a Hungarian pianist, composer and music producer whose performances connect classical piano technique with contemporary arrangements and large-scale stage production. He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and set a Guinness-recognised piano-speed record in 2012. His concert work combines the piano with the visual and technical language of modern live performance. On 10 October 2026 he appeared at Budapest's MVM Dome. The EUFÓRIA photograph records a particular gesture at a Steinway & Sons grand piano within that arena concert, rather than presenting a commissioned portrait or an endorsement of the project.
Photograph record
- Date
- 2026-10-10
- Place
- MVM Dome, Budapest
- Photographer
- Bánhalmi Norbert
Artistic reading
Curatorial reading: the contrast between a momentary gesture and the surrounding arena production gives the photograph its concentration of presence. It does not claim insight into the musician's private intentions.
Sources and provenance
Artwork record, source and person identifiers
Public circulation
Documentation in progress. Further records of publications, reuse and the photograph’s developing story are being collected. This status does not imply that any such use has occurred.
For a closer reading, follow the project’s connections to the wider oeuvre and its archive records.
EUFÓRIA within the wider oeuvre
Why it belongs here
How it connects to the wider work
There is a duality that has run through my whole life. I am an applied photographer — and an artist.
The related records connect this work to the press archive and the curatorial dossier.
Related projects and archive routes
Presence-research period · V
Public and leadership presence
This project in development belongs to the current period of the oeuvre. These links connect its documented works and public sources; the exhibition remains planned.
