Behind The shot With Tamas Kereskenyi

One photographer. One image. The story behind the shot.

For nearly two decades, this square has served as a permanent stage for political tension and demonstrations against the ruling regime. Previously, whenever I walked here, a sense of anger, helplessness, and a heavy, oppressive atmosphere would weigh on me. I used to avoid this area altogether; it was difficult to reconcile the architectural dignity of the place with the political reality that shaped our daily lives. Time and again, desperate crowds - civilians, educators, journalists - gathered here to raise their voices against laws passed without accountability within the walls of Parliament, laws designed to push them to the brink. The square had frozen into a symbol of absolute power on one side, and social resistance on the other.

However, this April, history took a radical turn. The nearly twenty-year-old political status quo, reminiscent of the battle between David and Goliath, was overturned. Even within an asymmetric electoral system, society managed to force a change of government. By that time, I had already been working in Austria for four months. Yet, upon hearing the news of this political turning point, I felt a deep, internal urge to return. For the first time in my life, I wanted to experience the square not as a protestor, but as a citizen rediscovering their city during a pleasant stroll.

Upon arrival, the old, suffocating feeling vanished. Looking around, I saw liberated people enjoying the spring sunshine, admiring the monumental neo-Gothic silhouette of the Parliament building on the banks of the Danube. The square was unusually quiet - a strange sight for someone whose memory and newsreel footage associated this location exclusively with roaring crowds of tens of thousands.

At that exact moment, a dense, cooling mist suddenly erupted from the nozzles embedded in the pavement. The reactions of the passersby varied. Some instinctively stepped back, others ran into the vapor, and some just stood motionless, observing the phenomenon. That was the moment the photograph was taken. When I looked back at the image later, the duality of its atmosphere struck me immediately. Although the shot captures a peaceful, cloudless moment, to me, it carries a distinctly revolutionary aesthetic. Decades of conditioned reflexes and images from the past - when students standing up for their teachers were dispersed with tear gas on this very cobblestone - instantly triggered within me.

This unexpected urban oasis, the cloud of mist rising from the pavement, marks the beginning of a new era for me. The construction cranes looming in the background and the reconstruction of the rooftops do not merely show the renewal of the physical space; they express the hope that something fundamentally new is being built. For me, this photograph is both a promise and a symbol of a calmer, happier era to come.

You can follow Tamas Kereskenyis work on foto here.