SZABOLCS BARAKONYI: CONFRONTATION

A portrait series about the survivors of assaults against the Roma in Hungary

“Following a year of investigation, the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) is now ready to press charges against the four men who followed an elaborate plan in their assaults against the Roma; their intent was to kill. (…) In several cases, the suspects left their vehicle several kilometres from their targets, which they approached on foot through the fields. Though they took great care not to leave behind evidence, police nonetheless recovered DNA traces, footwear and tyre impressions.”
(Hiradó.hu, 2010. augusztus 10. 17:15)

In 2008 and 2009, Hungary was shocked by the most atrocious series of crimes in the history of its modern democracy, the murders of Roma. Between April and July 2010, photographer Szabolcs Barakonyi went to all the scenes of the assaults, making a portrait series of the survivors.

On August 21, 2009, the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) arrested four men in Debrecen, charging them with the premeditated murder of several Roma persons, a killing series that was intentional from the start. DNA traces and mobile phone call information, the basis of well-founded suspicion, were collected in nine scenes, which the police now consider the stages of the assault series: Galgagyörk, Piricse, Nyíradony, Tarnabod, Nagycsécse, Alsózsolca, Tiszalök and Kisléta. In these nine cases, sixteen houses, the homes of 55 people were attacked. Of them, six died and five were injured.

With this project, Barakonyi offers a simple, artless form through which the audience can face the surviving victims.