Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center

Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center

Interior of the Capa Center
Established	2013
Location	Budapest, Hungary
Coordinates	47°30′08″N 19°03′40″E / 47.5022°N 19.0611°E / 47.5022; 19.0611
Type	photography museum
Website	capacenter.hu

The Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center is a visual arts institute and exhibition space in Budapest, Hungary. The Center organises national and international photography exhibitions and workshops,^[1][2] and awards the annual Robert Capa Photography Grand Prize for Hungarian photographers.^[3][4] It was named after the Hungarian-American photographer, Robert Capa, and opened in 2013, on the centennial anniversary of his birth.^[1][5]

The Center's collection consists of more than 900 prints of Capa's photographs and 48 vintage prints,^[6] spanning his entire career. The prints were selected from the negatives by his brother, Cornell Capa, and the author Richard Whelan. Three sets were made; the others are housed at the International Center of Photography in New York and at the Fuji Art Museum in Hachiōji, Tokyo.^[7][8] The Center's permanent exhibition, Robert Capa, the Photojournalist, presents a selection of 140 prints.^[9][10] In 2024, some of the photographs were used in an anti-war media campaign launched by the Center and shown throughout Europe.^[11][12]

Temporary exhibitions hosted by the Center include Euphoria? Stories of a System Change from Hungary (2019–20), Crossing Lines. Politics of Images (2023) and Eastern European Beauty – Contemporary Fashion Photography & the Eastern European Aesthetic (2024).^[13][14] Its recent exhibitions have included European Kinship – Eastern European Perspective, a collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, presenting works dealing with modern European identity by artists from Poland and Hungary.^[15][16][17]

After the Hungarian State purchased Robert Capa's legacy in 2008 and brought it back to Hungary, establishing an institution dedicated to Hungarian photography became a priority. A selection of approximately 30 images from the acquired collection was first exhibited at the Hungarian National Museum from March 6 to 15, 2009.^[18] Later that year, the collection was also presented at the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest.^[19]

On July 12, 2013, the Hungarian State established the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center^[20][21] and the Center was opened on December 3, 2013.^[22][23]

The Center is in an Art Nouveau house built in 1912, designed by architect Gyula Fodor,^[24] which has a large stained glass window in the staircase made by artist Miksa Róth, based on the designs of painter József Rippl-Rónai, and stone benches designed by the architect Ödön Lechner. The building was commissioned by art collector and patron of the arts Lajos Ernst. It was the first five-story building in Budapest, and, among other functions, housed a museum exhibiting Ernst’s private collection and hosting temporary exhibitions.^[25][26]

After Ernst’s death in 1937, the cultural institution in the building continued to operate under frequently changing names.^[27] Later it functioned as a branch of the Kunsthalle for decades, hosting exhibitions and art events. Until August 2013, it housed the Ernst Museum.^[25][26]

• Official website