With ‘Blue Memoir’, my intention is to create a series of photographs, an intuitive, multilayered visual essay contemplating how Hungarian people relate to water and examine its isolation on a physical, social and spiritual level.
Hungary is considered a water superpower, with water resources unique both in quantity and quality in the Carpathian Basin. On the other hand, Hungary has been experiencing unprecedented droughts, extreme weather events, aridity and water scarcity in recent years. The question emerges: how is it possible that in Hungary there is a lot of water and not enough at the same time?
Over the last 200 years our meandering rivers have been intensively regulated. Wetlands have been drained at the altar of industrialization and intensive agriculture. Natural floodplains of rivers were replaced by arable lands and a network of canals to irrigate these areas, cutting people off from water, and drying up the country in a few decades.
Isolation from water is a consequence of short-sighted water management, which caused a systemic crisis between the fundamental functioning of nature and industrial reality. This narrative explores the possibility that climate change is just part of the problem. By properly managing our water resources, we could alleviate the effects of climate change and achieve inclusion and water equity.
We take our relationship with water for granted, but to what extent are we vulnerable to the changes that are taking place around us?
After working on environmental stories along the River Brahmaputra in India, I realized how urgent it is to address the water crisis issues in my homeland, Hungary, a landlocked country full of water. I want to explore the fragile relationship between people and water through human encounters, while focusing on how climate change and human negligence affect our most precious resource - water and the quality of life that surrounds it.
Using my local knowledge and unique access as a native, I reach minorities and vulnerable communities whose livelihoods are directly affected by water-related environmental changes and as a result, are no longer resilient in the face of floods, droughts and other climate risks. I examine how water equity has lost its balance due to human mismanagement and how underprivileged communities are disproportionately affected. This project will also highlight local best practices, water conservation initiatives, and successful human adaptations, with the ultimate goal of reaching stakeholders and decision-makers.
I was born and raised near our second biggest river, the Tisza and thermal springs around my hometown, Szentes, located in the Great Hungarian Plain. Water has played an integral part throughout my life. It has always been important for me to show a topic of such magnitude as water through the daily lives of everyday people.
Revisiting these formative experiences allows me to present them to the world in the hopes of making a difference. This is an ongoing project.
András Zoltai is a documentary photographer, visual storyteller, and National Geographic Explorer based in Budapest, Hungary. He studied photojournalism at the Academy of the National Association of Hungarian Journalists. Specializing in socially and environmentally critical issues, he strives to blend journalistic and conceptual approaches in his documentary narratives.
Since 2021, he has worked on environmental stories along the River Brahmaputra in India. This experience made Zoltai realize the urgency of addressing the water crisis in his homeland, Hungary, a landlocked country abundant in water. His current long-term project, "Blue Memoir," focuses on water issues and its isolation on physical, social, and spiritual levels in a Central European country that is supposed to be a water superpower. His approach explores the fragile and vulnerable relationship between humans and water through encounters and memories from his homeland, while also addressing how climate change and human negligence affect this most precious resource and the quality of life surrounding it. He has been working on this project since 2022.
His work has been published in numerous international publications such as the Washington Post, Fisheye Mag, Libération, El País, and Le Monde, among others. He has been awarded the national József Pécsi Photography Scholarship three times and was the recipient of the CarmencitaxKodak Grant. He is also a talent of the European FUTURES platform.