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Ata Kandó (born Etelka Görög; 17 September 1913 – 14 September 2017) was a Hungarian-born Dutch photographer. Beginning her photography practice in the 1930s with children's photography, Kandó later worked as a fashion photographer, photographed refugees and travelled to the Amazon to photograph landscapes and indigenous people. In 1959, she won a silver medal in Munich for fashion photography and then in 1991, received the ; this was followed in 1998 with the Imre Nagy Prize and that same year, she and her husband received the
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
, awarded by Israel for saving Jews during the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. In 1999 she was awarded the Hungarian Photographers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.


Early life

Etelka Görög was born on 17 September 1913 to a family of Hungarian Jewish descent in
Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
to Margit (née Beke) and Imre Görög. Her father was a high school teacher and translator of Russian literature. He had been a prisoner of war in Russia during the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. Her mother translated Scandinavian literature into Hungarian and spoke five languages. Etelka's maternal grandfather ( Hungarian style: Beke Manó), was a noted
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
. When she learned to talk, Etelka was unable to pronounce her own name and called herself Ata, which she continued to use into adulthood. Her parents encouraged their daughter in pursuing an artistic profession. She liked drawing and was enrolled in the Sándor Bortnyik private academy. Other students included the artists Victor Vasarely (Vásárhelyi Győző) and Gyula Kandó (Kandó Gyula). She and Gyula wed in 1931 and moved to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, but, due to financial difficulties, the couple returned to Budapest in 1935. Changing her studies to photography, Kandó began studying with Klára Wachter and Mariann Reismann and then completed an apprenticeship with Ferenc Haár. She completed her exams studying under .


Career

Kandó and her husband returned to Paris in 1938 and she opened a photography studio between the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
and the
Palais Garnier The (, Garnier Palace), also known as (, Garnier Opera), is a historic 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from 1861 to 1875 at the ...
with Ferenc Haár's wife. Primarily focusing on children's photography, the business began growing, but in 1940 the German invasion of Paris forced the couple's deportation and return to Hungary. In 1941, Kandó had a son, Tamás, and two years later gave birth to twin daughters, Júlia and Magdolna. Her parents and sister were forced into hiding due to their Jewish heritage, however, as Kandó's husband was not Jewish and the
Aryan ''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''), Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood ...
Spouse Act of Hungary gave her a measure of protection, Kandó was able to move about freely. Both she and her husband worked for the
resistance during World War II During World War II, resistance movements operated in German-occupied Europe by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation to propaganda, hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns. In many countries, r ...
, housing fourteen Jews in their home. In another case, Kandó gave her identity papers to Bíró Gábor (Gábor Bíró), a pregnant Jewish woman, so that she could enter a Christian maternity hospital to have her baby. After the birth, Kandó pretended the child was her own and provided forged identity papers so that the woman could act as a
wet nurse A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeding, breastfeeds and cares for another's child. Wet nurses are employed if the mother dies, if she is unable to nurse the child herself sufficiently or chooses not to do so. Wet-nursed children may be known a ...
for her own child. Moving multiple times, the Kandó–Bíró household managed to remain undetected until the war ended. Both Kandó and her husband were honored with the
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
from the State of Israel for assisting Jews during the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
in 1998. In 1947, the family returned to Paris and Kandó resumed her photography career with a camera she received from Robert Capa after her own was lost. Capa also hired her to work at Magnum Photos laboratory where she remained until 1952. Unable to find work in Paris, her husband returned to Hungary in 1949 to seek work so the family could join him, but in late 1949 the
Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. On the east side of the Iron Curtain were countries connected to the So ...
's establishment meant that the family was unable to reunite. Shortly thereafter, Kandó and her husband separated and she fell in love with a 25-year-old Dutch photographer, Ed van der Elsken. The couple lived together for four years before marrying in 1954 and moving to the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. Less than a year later, however, they divorced and she found herself alone in a foreign country with three children. Turning to fashion photography, she took pictures for well-known Dutch and French fashion houses and travelled with her children making photo shoots throughout the Alps. In 1956, Kandó traveled to the Austrian–Hungarian border during the Hungarian Revolution. She wanted to take pictures of the refugees but could not convince any other photographers to go with her. When the Bound Arts Federation () supported the trip and De Bezige Bij agreed to publish the works, Violette Cornelius joined her. The two women flew to Vienna and took photographs of refugee children, stipulating that the proceeds of the sale go to assist the refugees. The untitled book was called The Red Book due to its colour, was shot over three weeks so that it could be released by Christmas. Sales raised over a quarter of a million dollars. The following year, Kandó published a book called ''Droom in het woud'' (Dream in the forest), which featured the holiday trips she had taken in Switzerland and Austria with her children. Her son, Tamás, who was fourteen, wrote the texts to accompany the dream-like images. Several bookstores in the Netherlands refused to sell the book, on the grounds that the dream sequences were too erotic. Kandó returned to fashion photography and obtained a teaching post at a Dutch secondary school. In 1959, she won a silver medal from Munich for the best fashion photograph of the year and began working at the Dutch Academy of Arts and Design and Graphic Arts in
Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...
. In 1961, through a fashion model, Barbara Brandli, who was also working as an assistant to the architect
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
, Kandó was invited to visit
Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
. She photographed Brandli in the jungle and through contact with a French priest was able to fly to the interior and take images of some of the native indigenous people. She returned again in 1965 taking more photographs of the Amazon landscape and people. She was also able to take photographs of Peruvian whalers during the second trip. The South American photographs were featured in ''
National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
'' and some images were purchased by the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
and private collectors. In 1970, some of them were published in a book called ''A Hold véréből''. In 1979, Kandó moved to
Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...
to be near her son, now known as Thomas. She continued working and publishing photographs from the United States for a decade. Her work was increasingly recognized during this time. She received Pro Cultura Hungarica Medal in 1991. In 1998, Kandó was awarded the Imre Nagy Prize . That same year, she and her former husband received the
Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
, awarded by Israel for saving Jews during the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
. In 1999 she was awarded the Hungarian Photographers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.


Later career

In 1999, Kandó moved to the
Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
to be near one of her daughters and then in 2001 returned to the Netherlands, settling in
Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...
. In 2003, she published a second collection of the photographs taken of her children on their holidays between 1954 and 1955. The book had originally been planned for publication as a sequel to ''Droom in het woud'', but because of the poor reception of ''Droom'' in 1957, Kandó did not publish at that time. The book, was originally planned to be named Ulysses, but was renamed in 2003 and published as ''Kalypso & Nausikaä – Foto's naar Homerus Odyssee''. In 2004, in celebration of her 90th birthday, photographs from the "Red Book" were shown in the Netherlands. Two years later, Kandó held an exhibition of works in conjunction with the Hungarian Embassy in Berlin in 2006, which also featured were photographs taken in 1956 of refugee children. In 2013, in conjunction with her 100th birthday, an English and Hungarian translation of ''Dream in the Forest'' was released and the Hungarian Museum of Photography held a two-month exhibition featuring her works. The Dutch Photo Museum held an exhibition in 2014 of her work, along with portraits made by other photographers.


Death and legacy

Kandó died three days before her 104th birthday on 14 September 2017.


References


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kando, Ata 1913 births 2017 deaths Jewish women artists Photographers from Budapest Hungarian Righteous Among the Nations Dutch photographers Dutch women photographers Dutch women centenarians Hungarian women centenarians Jewish centenarians Hungarian emigrants to the Netherlands