From the series My Lost Memories | UFO
2020–2025
digital capture; archival pigment print
75 × 100 cm
Childhood fantasy and fear are closely intertwined because children’s thinking is still strongly image-based, magical and only loosely regulated. A few key points help us understand this relationship:
1. A developed imagination intensifies fears. Children aged 3–7 have lively imaginations. Since the boundaries between reality and fantasy are not yet sharply defined, creatures lurking in the dark, shadows, noises and monsters from tales and films can easily “come to life” for them. Children do not merely imagine these but may well experience them as reality.
2. Fear often takes shape through imagination. It is through their imagination that children often find an answer to what they do not understand: why is there a rattling noise in the house at night → “there is a monster here”; why is mom/dad late→”something awful was done to them”. Imagination thus makes sense of the unknown, even if it is scary.
3. Fantasy can help process fear. It can intensify fears and also relieve them: children “defeat” monsters in role-plays, heroes stand up to frightening forces in stories, and children express and “tame” fear through creative drawing and storytelling. Fantasy provides a safe space in which fears can be tested and controlled.
photo: Mészáros László
László Mészáros
(1967, Budapest)
He has created commercial and artistic photos for three decades. He sometimes uses analogue and sometimes digital technology to take his pictures of objects, portraits, fashion, travel photographs and artworks. The latter works are heavily influenced by the greats of classic painting such as Caravaggio, El Greco and Mihály Munkácsy, as well as the world of mediaeval painting. In 1989 he opened his own studio. He has taught at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design and at Budapest University of Technology. In 2000 he won the Swiss Sinar photo award, and his commercial photographs have earned numerous advertising-sector awards. As well as his exhibitions in Hungary (including: MODEM, Várkert Bazár, TOBE Gallery, APA Gallery, Art Market Budapest, Kiscell Múzeum, Hybridart Space, Garten), his works have also been displayed in Vienna, Milan, Paris, Los Angeles, Romania and Greece.