Oculus, New York — a PX3 award winning photograph arrives in Budapest

This PX3 award winning photograph was made in New York City, from the 54th floor of the Millennium Hilton, looking down at the Oculus.

Most people experience that building from street level. They walk through it, around it, beneath it. I photographed it from above. That difference mattered to me. Not because of height, but because of perspective.

I took the image on my 40th birthday.

In 2010, when I was 27, I nearly lost my life. During surgery for cervical cancer, I developed a severe flesh-eating bacterial infection. Recovery was long, uncertain, and reshaped how I understand time. Since then, birthdays are not milestones. They are confirmations.

I am a Hungarian photographer.

I spent ten years building my professional life in the United States. New York taught me discipline, scale, and how to work without sentimentality. This photograph came out of that period. It was not planned as a personal statement. It became one because of when and how it was made.

The image was first exhibited in Paris after receiving recognition at the PX3 – Prix de la Photographie Paris. In 2024, I returned to Hungary. In 2026, the photograph arrives here as well.

On January 29, the work will be exhibited in Budapest at the House of Lucie as part of the PX3 Winners Exhibition. This will be the first time the photograph is shown to a Hungarian audience. From Budapest, it continues to Greece and Italy.

There is a quiet symmetry in that sequence.

I left Hungary.I built a life and a career elsewhere.Now the work follows, without explanation.

Standing above the Oculus that day, I realized something simple and lasting: I was still here, steady enough to look down, clear enough to see, and present enough to make the photograph.

Some images record what is in front of the camera.Others record the fact that the photographer endured long enough to take them.

This one does both.