Blinken OSA colleague Lenke Szilágyi, a famed photographer, was awarded the Pro Cultura Urbis prize, founded in 2000, along with three other distinguished awardees. The prize was awarded after a ten-year hiatus by the board of trustees of the Pro Cultura Urbis Public Foundation, established in 1999, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Budapest. In addition to the cash prize, the winners received a sculpture of the stylized key to the city, designed by sculptor Erika Ligeti. According to the intention of the founders, the Foundation awards the prize to persons and institutions that significantly enrich the cultural life of the city or promote the cultural heritage of Budapest.
Lenke Szilágyi, a distinguished artist of Debrecen origin, has been active in the city's cultural life for several decades, working as a photo editor of Beszélő, for theatres in Budapest, and as a still photographer for several cult films. She also worked with the legendary film director Miklós Jancsó.
Recently she had a successful exhibition at the Art Department in Paulay Ede Street, entitled Szilágyi Lenke: Portraits of artists 1989-1996.
In an article in ART7, Ágnes Józsa writes about her the following, "Her subjects - even the ordinary ones - go beyond the ordinary, but there are no tricks in them, she just makes use of the rich tonality of the black-and-white image. She photographs a lot of things, she travels a lot, and those images capture not only the landscape but also the fate of the people who live there".
Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives