Amateur Photos from Hungary

The several tens of thousands of private photos from the years 1983 and 1989 were left at the Hungarian state-owned company FŐFOTÓ’s storage for discarding. Photos with technical imperfection, unclaimed prints and most probably censored images are part of this unparalleled photo archive. Under a special agreement between FŐFOTÓ and the Hungarian Institute for Educational and Cultural Research (Művelődéskutató Intézet), this vast collection of photo prints was saved from destruction and safeguarded by the Private Photo and Film Archive. It is a unique source for those who want to learn about the everyday life under the last decade of Communism in Hungary.

These photos show us how families lived their lives: spent their holidays, celebrated birthdays, partied; what were their homes like, what hair style they preferred, what was the fashion in clothing and interior design. It is not known and cannot be identified whose images are these, but by going through them, one can get absorbed by the era.