About me

Welcome to my site!  I'm a freelance Photographer




My name is Istvan Budai, and I am a freelance photographer living in Szombathely, Hungary. I have been taking pictures since I was a child, and had my own color laboratory in Hungary. 

When I was 17, my pictures were selected for an exhibition in the Budapest House of Young Artists. I have participated in several courses on Creative Photography, while also taking care of my business interests in Hungary and elsewhere. The main influences on my work are Andre Kertesz, Brassai, Ansel Adams and Jung Zseni. My lens has captured, among others, Gina Lollobrigida and Roger Moore. It's a fantastic feeling when, through the lens of your camera, you can see details of this wonderful world which otherwise would just pass you by. 



Thanks to my photography, I have often been able to make friends with people who would otherwise be regarded as reserved to make contact with. It always give me pleasure to know that with the help of modern technology I can share the joys of my travels with others. In 2000 I was asked to take photographs of the annual Savaria Pageant, which covers the history of the city from Roman times to the present day. 


The City Council commissioned an official calendar of my pictures, and this was sent all over the world. As a direct result of this, German and Hungarian publishers have regularly commissioned photographs for newspapers and monthly magazines, particularly of motor racing and yachting (I am a former Hungarian yachting champion). I take the official photographs of the Hungarian Prime Minister on his visits to Western Hungary. My largest photograph to date decorated five storey of a wall of a block of flats: it was an election poster in May 2002. In 2001 I spent nearly three months traveling around Australia: the photographs I took formed the basis of an exhibition, “Wonderful Australia”, shown in Szombathely, Budapest and other cities in Hungary, and in Las Vegas. 

Pictures from this exhibition have also been accepted for National Geographic. What interests me particularly is photographing people in their own landscape, capturing the decisive moment of their expressions. In the short to medium term, I am intending to travel in the USA, Alaska, Africa and India, photographing people, cities and landscapes. I am a member of the International Federation of Journalists.