05.06 | What Happened in the Cobblestone Alley?

After last week's "well, that was an experience" photo shoot, I felt it was time to expand our team with fresh, completely unfamiliar faces. Of course, saying "let's find models" is easy — but where on earth do you find a bunch of strangers in the middle of Vienna? Then came the bolt-from-the-blue idea: why not cast the net into one of the popular Facebook groups for Hungarians in Vienna? So I posted that our enthusiastic little team was looking for models, regardless of age, gender or — let's be honest — body type. And then I waited.

I admit, part of me was thinking, "what if the comments turn into the deepest pit of a troll farm?" Fortunately, the post somehow created nothing but positive waves. Nearly twenty-five people applied. Real people who were willing to take part in our little creative rampage. Eleven of them could make the date, and yesterday five brave models actually showed up.

I quickly created a WhatsApp group for the enthusiastic applicants, and preparation for the big day began. Their task was simple: dive into the depths of the internet and choose images in which they could imagine themselves at the shoot. Meanwhile, our photographers carried on with their lives in blissful ignorance, with no idea what surprises were waiting for them.

Then yesterday arrived. As usual, from five o'clock the ladies and gentlemen of photography began gathering at the legendary headquarters of the Vienna Hungarian School on Schwedenplatz. I explained the noble objective and we talked through the "the fewer clicks, the happier the model" strategy. I suspected that the images selected by the models would probably fall into the "Mission: Impossible" category when it came to posing and style, so instead I asked the photographers to try to capture the mood and feeling of the reference images. "Somehow" was the key word.

Six o'clock struck, and in came our miracle models dropped from Facebook. We skipped the introductions; the whole thing felt a little like an Alcoholics Anonymous session, except there were cameras in the corner. We sat in a large circle facing one another, and each model chose a photographer purely on sympathy — in other words, by looking at them. The photographers had, of course, been told to hide their expensive equipment so the models wouldn't judge them by the size of their cameras. Because everyone knows that a bigger camera equals greater skill… or maybe not. Surprisingly, the photographers wearing glasses were the most popular. Perhaps everyone secretly assumed that glasses + photographer = super-creative genius.

Anyone who didn't get a model was forced to pair up with another "orphaned" photographer. Then we headed out to the cobblestone street that has silently witnessed many of our shoots. The first task was to recreate the mood of one of the chosen reference images as a "street fashion photograph". Photographers who had been paired together had to make similar images of each other. Unlike the previous session, this shoot ended when the photographer could say: "Yes, I have one image where I think you look beautiful!" I was slightly worried that some pairs might not immediately discover each other's hidden beauty, so we had a Plan B: a photograph from behind, with the model making some kind of gesture or movement, allowing the environment and the action together to tell a story. Creative crisis averted.

After the first task, the models were allowed to choose photographers again. The switch happened, and the next assignment was to capture the same mood with the new partner. It was fascinating to see how differently people interpreted the same feeling. By this point everyone was much more relaxed and creativity was taking off.

For the final task, the photographers who had so far missed out were paired with the models. Their job was to bring out one another's feminine or masculine side. The aim was to create subtly sexy photographs that would still be perfectly acceptable on social media. Paying attention to details was especially important when a model wasn't at peak openness. A gesture, a touch, a look — sometimes that's all it takes. At first quite a few people were shocked by the assignment, but once the pairs headed off, they tuned into one another surprisingly quickly and produced beautiful images.

By eight o'clock our little "getting-to-know-each-other therapy with photographs" was over. We held a quick debrief in the stairwell, and something genuinely special happened: a warm, affectionate atmosphere filled the group. People said goodbye with huge hugs and grateful hearts.

I decided on the spot that we should repeat this little miracle every two or three weeks.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.