French photographer Pol Kurucz is known for creating avant-garde photographs that are vivid, surrealist, and controversial in their views on society.
The photographer was born in the Hungarian city of Budapest, but he spent most of his boyhood in Paris. "Pol Kurucz had two separate names when he was born in a hospital in Hungary. His mother was French, and his father was Hungarian. His hyperactivity as a child was addressed with theater. At the age of 27, he was working as a manager during the day and a stage director at night. After that, he traveled rapidly to Bahrain and Brazil, stopping at corporate islands and favelas.
He has sailed up to the shores of the adult entertainment sector and militant feminism, creating a mainstream bar that makes money by losing money in the basement of its independent art scene. Then, unexpectedly, he succumbed to his folly and ended that part of him. In 2015, Pol underwent a rebirth, during which he combined his two names and the conflicting lives he had led into a single existence "where absurdity makes reason."
In 2011, he established the artist collective known as Kolor Collective. He is a stage director and photographer, and with the collective, he explores topics such as afro-feminism and consumerism. His images have been published in high-profile magazines such as Vogue, ELLE, and Nylon. Although Kurucz has formerly called Bahrain and Portugal home, he currently makes his home in Sao Paulo.
Pol Kurucz tries not to identify himself as a photographer but rather as the visual universe into which he merges various projects he works on, including fine art, fashion, and celebrity. The basic foundations of his photography universe are the unconventional yet attractive blend of vivid hues that are not primary colors, stylized sets, props, compositions, provocative themes, glam-cool styling, and models with unusually beautiful features.
He doesn’t like sticking to procedures because his ideas come to him in images that suddenly appear in my head, maybe while showering, lying in bed, walking down the street, going to the movies, or using social media. They just come randomly. After that, the concepts are put through a little editing system in his head modeled after the aesthetics of a select group of virtual masters, like René Magritte, Roy Andersson, Bob Wilson, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Miles Aldridge, among others.
At first look, the work of Pol Kurucz appears to be dramatic, skillfully presented, provocative, and almost humorous in nature. On closer scrutiny, each piece, however, communicates a critique of some aspect of society. Kurucz creates expressive images to raise enormous questions about established norms of worth.
The graphical metaphors are blaring, bursting with color, and nearly difficult to overlook. Kurucz discusses topics in society such as racism, sexism, and gender discrimination, all of which merit more attention than they currently receive. Kurucz encourages viewers to "understand the images in their own way" and asserts that he does not wish to influence their decisions in any way.
The Brazilian art scene and the drag community are both tremendous sources of inspiration for Kurucz's creative process. The artist claims that Brazil is "lively than any other country," "crazier than any other country," and "more colorful than any other country." The audience is brought back to David LaChapelle's peculiar Pop Art aesthetic, which he also used to pose problems of gender and social standing. The cinematic photography technique of Miles Aldridge is also brought to the attention of the viewers.
The messages come in various forms. Kurucz draws attention to the fact that women with darker skin tones are underrepresented in Brazilian politics and discusses the artificial beauty standards that young girls are subjected to. He questions traditional values by illustrating the difference between stylized glamor and limiting rules, thereby shifting our basic conception of what it is for something to be "normal."
Pol Kurucz has high hopes that the next generation of social media platforms primarily focuses on visual content. As well as the devices of the future that people will use to view and share photos will support images of a larger size, allowing the general public to fully appreciate the stunning beauty of medium-format photography.
You can see further examples of Pol's work on his website, which you can access at www.polkurucz.com