Photographer Ata Kandó dies, at 103

Hungarian-born Dutch photographer Ata Kandó died on Thursday in the Netherlands, at the age of 103, her grandson told MTI. 

Born in Budapest as Etelka Görög, Ata Kandó graduated in photography in 1935.

After WWII she moved with her family to Paris where she worked at the Magnum photo agency along with renowned artists Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson. In 1954 she moved to the Netherlands.

Ata Kandó returned to Hungary in October 1956 to photograph the thousands of refugees fleeing the country to Austria

after the crushed revolution, with a focus on children. In the same year she published a photo album and offered its proceeds to support Hungarian refugees.

“I wanted to capture the plight of those who had suffered  the 1956 Hungarian revolution, especially the children. I felt an affinity with people who had lost their country, since I myself had been a refugee. My husband and I were in the communist resistance during the second world war, but when the Russians took over Hungary we did not agree with their approach. When the Red Army liberated us from the Nazis, the Hungarian people said : “We are going from one trash can into another.” /The Guardian interview, 12 January 2017./

She earned her fame by taking rare shots of South American Indian tribes in the 1960s.

Photo: Mészáros Márton / MTI

Source: MTI