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The Encyclopedia of the Art of Photography

    New York, New York

    • György Lörinczy (1935-1981)

    Experimental project presenting the 1968 New York counterculture through blurred, grainy images that highlight the city's unfiltered urban expression.

    Description

    György Lörinczy’s New York, New York captures the pulse of New York City in 1968 through avant-garde experimental techniques. Created during a period of social upheaval and countercultural movements, Lörinczy’s project immerses viewers in the energy of a city defined by hippies, the Civil Rights Movement, student protests, and the broader avant-garde art scene. As a Hungarian photographer granted rare access to travel abroad due to his government’s relaxed restrictions, Lörinczy embraced the freedom and chaos of New York with an unfiltered, stream-of-consciousness approach that set his work apart from traditional documentary photography.


    Rather than focusing on landmark architecture or well-known urban scenes, he turned his lens to the East Village and its bohemian inhabitants, capturing the raw and uninhibited essence of the city’s counterculture. His images, rough in texture and often blurred or grainy, exude a hallucinatory, manic exuberance. While in New York, Lörinczy experimented with self-made emulsions on photo paper and employed techniques such as extreme grain, blur, solarisation, and printing on tracing paper and translucent, colourful wax paper, enhancing the material quality of his visual storytelling. These experimental approaches align Lörinczy’s work with the likes of William Klein and Daidō Moriyama, both of whom employed radical stylistic choices to break from traditional visual language. Unlike Klein, however, Lörinczy's perspective lacks an overt social critique, instead offering a vibrant and immersive take on the city's spirit.


    Since publication, New York, New York has been periodically revisited in exhibitions—among them NEW YORK — André Kertész / György Lőrinczy at Vintage Galéria, Budapest (2020), and a two-person presentation at Mai Manó House / Hungarian House of Photography (2021). Prints and archival material are now housed in Hungarian public collections.

    Quotes by the photographer

    "This book is not about New York, nor the city nor the New York State. I have photographed the people amongst whom I have lived in 1968 and those places that interested me for some reason. In the book there are no images of famous buildings, machinated American households, bank associates, billionaires, female shop assistants, light, shade and many other things."

    "I lived in the East Village amongst them: hippies, artists, students. The studio of Tom Wesselmann was in the neighbouring street, a few corners away Andy Warhol’s Factory, the greengrocery was opened at night as well and there was the smell of incense in the streets. I felt very well between them."

    Tags and context
    genre
    Experimental ,Urban ,Fine Art
    theme
    Urban Life ,Nightlife ,Perception & Reality ,Underground Life ,Consumer Culture
    technique
    Solarization ,Overexposure ,Grainy Texture ,Snapshot Aesthetic ,High Contrast ,Black-and-White ,Photomontage ,Tonal and Color Effects , Intentional Blur ,Embedded Text
    influence
    Provoke Movement ,Avant-Garde , Pop Art ,Beat Generation ,Stream of Consciousness ,Abstract Expressionism ,Surrealism ,Dadaism ,Low Culture
    period
    1960s
    location
    United States

    Credits: A limited image selection is reproduced for analysis, commentary, and research under Article 24(1)(3) of the Bulgarian Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act. Kalina Petrova (image research); Lucia Catalin (data research). Suggest an Edit

    New York, New York

    • György Lörinczy (1935-1981)

    Experimental project presenting the 1968 New York counterculture through blurred, grainy images that highlight the city's unfiltered urban expression.

    Description

    György Lörinczy’s New York, New York captures the pulse of New York City in 1968 through avant-garde experimental techniques. Created during a period of social upheaval and countercultural movements, Lörinczy’s project immerses viewers in the energy of a city defined by hippies, the Civil Rights Movement, student protests, and the broader avant-garde art scene. As a Hungarian photographer granted rare access to travel abroad due to his government’s relaxed restrictions, Lörinczy embraced the freedom and chaos of New York with an unfiltered, stream-of-consciousness approach that set his work apart from traditional documentary photography.


    Rather than focusing on landmark architecture or well-known urban scenes, he turned his lens to the East Village and its bohemian inhabitants, capturing the raw and uninhibited essence of the city’s counterculture. His images, rough in texture and often blurred or grainy, exude a hallucinatory, manic exuberance. While in New York, Lörinczy experimented with self-made emulsions on photo paper and employed techniques such as extreme grain, blur, solarisation, and printing on tracing paper and translucent, colourful wax paper, enhancing the material quality of his visual storytelling. These experimental approaches align Lörinczy’s work with the likes of William Klein and Daidō Moriyama, both of whom employed radical stylistic choices to break from traditional visual language. Unlike Klein, however, Lörinczy's perspective lacks an overt social critique, instead offering a vibrant and immersive take on the city's spirit.


    Since publication, New York, New York has been periodically revisited in exhibitions—among them NEW YORK — André Kertész / György Lőrinczy at Vintage Galéria, Budapest (2020), and a two-person presentation at Mai Manó House / Hungarian House of Photography (2021). Prints and archival material are now housed in Hungarian public collections.

    Quotes by the photographer

    "This book is not about New York, nor the city nor the New York State. I have photographed the people amongst whom I have lived in 1968 and those places that interested me for some reason. In the book there are no images of famous buildings, machinated American households, bank associates, billionaires, female shop assistants, light, shade and many other things."

    "I lived in the East Village amongst them: hippies, artists, students. The studio of Tom Wesselmann was in the neighbouring street, a few corners away Andy Warhol’s Factory, the greengrocery was opened at night as well and there was the smell of incense in the streets. I felt very well between them."

    Tags and context
    genre
    Experimental ,Urban ,Fine Art
    theme
    Urban Life ,Nightlife ,Perception & Reality ,Underground Life ,Consumer Culture
    technique
    Solarization ,Overexposure ,Grainy Texture ,Snapshot Aesthetic ,High Contrast ,Black-and-White ,Photomontage ,Tonal and Color Effects , Intentional Blur ,Embedded Text
    influence
    Provoke Movement ,Avant-Garde , Pop Art ,Beat Generation ,Stream of Consciousness ,Abstract Expressionism ,Surrealism ,Dadaism ,Low Culture
    period
    1960s
    location
    United States

    Credits: A limited image selection is reproduced for analysis, commentary, and research under Article 24(1)(3) of the Bulgarian Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act. Kalina Petrova (image research); Lucia Catalin (data research). Suggest an Edit

    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York
    György Lörinczy – New York, New York

    Books

    upscaled cover image 9783932187438
    New York, New York
    • Nederlands Fotomuseum, 2004

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