Hungarian punks as documented by Tamás Urbán in the ‘80s socialist republic of Hungary, at the borders of the Iron Curtain and the Eastern Bloc that lived under the influence of the Soviet Union until 1989.
“…To be punk in early 1980s Hungary was more than just a fashion statement. Looking stylish as hell never hurts though, especially when your enemy is omnipotent state control. In those years, Eastern Bloc countries were thirsty for the fractured, rage-ridden themes of English and American bands like the Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedys. In those foreign screams, young Hungarians understood an echo of their own frustrations, and a dark reassurance that even life in the democratic West was as despondent as the situation at home. And in a political climate where having fun and playing music with your friends can earn you a jail sentence, innocuous activities quickly become subversive statements…
…Photojournalist Tamás Urbán was in his mid 30s when he started documenting the punk scene in Budapest, but he was no newcomer to the underground. A staffer at Ifjúsági Magazin (Youth Magazine) since 1969, Urbán was the rare press photographer at the time who wasn’t restricted from covering some of the darker corners of Hungary’s so-called socialist utopia, from glue sniffers and juvenile prisons to crime scenes and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not that everything he shot was published—most of these pictures weren’t seen until the 1990s…
…We feel a connection to his subjects because he did, too, establishing camaraderie on the margins with outsiders unaccustomed to being seen as more than freaks or delinquents. Permitted entry into their world to record a little known chapter of life under Soviet authority, the photographer was trusted to reflect the attitudes and anxieties of a generation…”
timeline.com/uncensored-photos-socialist-hungary
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