08.05. | The Evening When We Heard “Is That Really Me?” About a Hundred Times

We have this regular Tuesday-evening thing here in Vienna. You know the kind: a group of creative art lovers gets together to recharge, meet people and step out of the everyday hamster wheel for a while. Usually we laugh, swap stories and create things together, but this week I decided to throw everyone straight in at the deep end.

The theme: studio model photography. The twist? Everyone had to bring out both the artist and the supermodel inside themselves.

Picture the scene: twelve people in a studio, against a deep black background, lit by studio lights. The air is full of creative tension and a healthy dose of “what exactly is about to happen?” curiosity. Cameras and smartphones everywhere.

The task was simple: bring out the supermodel in each other and the artist in ourselves.

Or at least try.

At the beginning of the evening there was still a little restraint. Then something broke open.

The person who, five minutes earlier, had been sliding around on the floor with a phone searching for the perfect angle was suddenly staring down another lens in a pose worthy of a professional model. The quiet programmer turned into a Vogue cover star. The serious project manager started directing the “model” as if they had spent years assisting Annie Leibovitz.

One of the best things to watch was how quickly the group, which had already bonded over the previous two months, absorbed the newcomers.

Before a new arrival even had time to explain what they did for a living, three different “photographers” were already directing them: “Chin a little higher. Give me a more mysterious look. Yes—that's it, hold it!”

The group pulled them in immediately. Within minutes they were posing and photographing with exactly the same enthusiasm as the veterans.

It was fantastic to watch people step outside their usual selves and reveal a side they may not even have known they had.

The studio was buzzing. Flashes were firing constantly, and the soundtrack of the evening became a loop of “Wow, that came out so well!” and “Is that really me in that picture?”

By the end we were pleasantly exhausted, richer by at least a thousand experiences and several hundred photographs.

Every time we glanced at the screens, one thing became obvious: mission accomplished.

Yes, we went deeper into photography. More importantly, we played properly, supported one another and got to know each other better.

Then, at the end of the evening, came the magic sentence every organiser wants to hear:

“Norbert, we're doing this again, right?”

My answer was easy: of course we are.

From September onward, once a month in both Budapest and Vienna, we'll run this studio photography meet-and-create workshop, where everyone can try being both photographer and model, both observer and artist.

And in addition, I'll make five distinctive portraits of every participant.

For now, here's a small best-of selection from the evening.

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.