Out-and-Out (ecstasies), 2002
In his early photographic series, Balogh predetermined everything in advance, even before the image was produced: from the actor’s posture—striking the precise pose requested by the photographer for the scene—to the objects arranged around him and the clothes he wore. Everything was controlled; nothing was left to chance.
With the series Out-and-Out (Ecstasies), a slight opening emerges. Due to its subject matter, Balogh accepts a necessary element of the unknown to represent ecstasy and the diversity of interpretations of this psychological state, which is nonetheless shown physically. The photographer asked various young people on the street, all between the ages of twenty and thirty, to model for this series. They are therefore dressed simply, as they would in everyday life. After a conversation lasting about thirty minutes about their understanding of ecstasy, Balogh photographed them. This ecstasy could be mystical, romantic, drug-induced, or linked to a fit of madness. Each of these young people was thus asked to mimic, in an improvised manner for Balogh, a pose representing one of these ecstatic states. (Extract)
Stéphanie Jamet-Chavigny.
