Péter Korniss arrived with a photo and a delightful anecdote. The picture shows the recently deceased Ferenc Novák “Tata”, choreographer, director and artistic manager of the Honvéd Dance Company. When Otto von Habsburg viewed one of the company’s performances in 1989, Tata commented: “There has probably never been such a joyful encounter between the Habsburgs and the Hungarian Defence Forces”.
The visit gave us the opportunity to present a number of interesting items from the Foundation’s photo collection, such as the series of images by “Uncle Pali” – Paul Almasy – taken in an informal setting on the occasion of Queen Zita’s 70th birthday in 1962.
Throughout the enriching and amusing visit, we pondered together the importance of photography as an artistic activity, and listened to Péter Korniss, who showed a genuine interest in our collection, and gave us useful insights into the management of photographic collections, using his own classification structure as an example.
The 87-year-old master’s good humour and cheerfulness will stay with us for a long time.
Szilveszter Dékány
Otto von Habsburg’s introductory words in the volume entitled Bright and Splendid Hungary – Fényes Magyarország
