Shadowland

Shadowland is a series of photographs made in Hungary in the lead-up to the 2018 national election. The work responds to the controversy surrounding EU-funded street-lighting projects carried out by Elios, a company formerly co-owned by then Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law, István Tiborcz. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) investigated the projects over suspected irregularities involving public procurement and conflicts of interest.

The photographs portray ordinary Hungarians willing to speak up and criticise the government. I photographed them beneath some of the actual Elios street lights at the centre of the scandal. The poor illumination of the lights, itself part of the public criticism surrounding the projects, left much of the surrounding space in darkness. I used these limited pools of light to illuminate the people who were speaking out. Darkness became both the setting and the visual language of Shadowland, reflecting what remained hidden.