Street photography is nothing other than just capturing coincidences on the street and turning it into your own form of art.
This is how Tünde Valiszka describes street photography, a successful artist with over 13k followers on Instagram is traveling the world and capturing moments on the road.
Tünde’s journey into street photography
Her journey started at the age of 4, as her mother was a hobbyist photographer. She never considered a career in photography. Tünde moved to London at the age of 21, where she studied journalism, media & marketing. She worked in marketing for over ten years, and now works as a full-time content creator, photographer and brand identity developer.
Traveling around the globe and capturing moments became a hobby, with her trusted companion, her camera, always by her side. As she began to upload her photography on Instagram, her inbox started to attract requests for private shoots of portraits. This was something out of Tünde’s comfort zone since she only shot in the street and didn’t have a studio.
However, people wanted her own form of portraiture, which allowed Tünde to turn her street photography into a commission. Her first gig was a success with a £100 commission from her client for just 1 hour of shooting in the street. This is where her new journey began.
Finding where she fits in
Slowly, Tünde began to find her niche. She decided that she preferred to take pictures at night since it was more challenging, engaging, and attractive. This is where she accidentally took up a post-apocalyptic cinematic aesthetic, which started to happen subconsciously as she began experimenting more. Her work’s aesthetics also brought forward latex fetish models who wanted to work with Tünde and be photographed by her.
What it takes to move from the lens to the web and beyond
Symmetry. Reflections. Balance. Three of the main components in Tünde’s street photography. Simple techniques yet severely overlooked, as these are the techniques that allowed Tünde’s’ work to stand out from the crowd. She began working with big companies like Jägermeister. This allowed her to intertwine her marketing and photography skills for her client’s satisfaction.
At first glance, Tünde’s’ work looks photoshopped and assisted with expensive lighting, however, what you see is the polar opposite. Tünde has never photoshopped any of her work and does not use any additional lighting besides the dark street lighting. All the vibrant colors captured are colors captured from the street with some saturation added to bring out that wow factor.
How to adapt your art to the 21st century, metaverse style
“I like to say that I photograph the future. I photograph the way I think the metaverse will look like.”
This interest in the metaverse encouraged Tünde to start her own NFT collection which will become a space in the metaverse for all those cyber-punk lovers. As she started to sell her art through NFTs, she got opportunities to do exhibitions in places like Malta, London, and Tokyo.
Her next step forward is to begin merchandising her art by printing them on things like sneakers and skateboards. And the next journey after that? Well, Tünde has a dream of working with Warner Brothers to be able to work on the cinematography in films such as Blade Runner – a very fitting role!
Getting ahead in the industry
Tünde did not just get lucky with her success but worked hard and long for around 30 years to reach the point she is now.
“I’m a brand identity developer who visualizes the concept of a brand for the use of social media.”
Tünde explains that being an artist is a full package deal nowadays. It’s no longer about being just a photographer or just making art, you need to know your way around the field to get ahead.
“Photography for me is like breathing. It’s what you feel not what you see. I think the number one rule to be a good street photographer is to have empathy. If you have no empathy you’re f*****.”
What she’s trying to say is that through your lens you’re capturing the connection that you built with your subject. Therefore, if you don’t have that, you’re going to photograph the individual as an object.
What’s it like working with Tünde Valiszka?
Tünde’s photography is always an in-the-moment scene. When working with Tünde you’ll go out for coffee, walk the streets together through the vibrant streetlights and she’ll start snapping away.
This helps her achieve her goal – evoking an emotional response from her subject, and then in turn her audience when looking at her art.
Photography has become a form of meditation for this artist, making her feel calm and satisfied after every photo session. Her satisfaction is derived from the way she tackles her work – instead of capturing real-life events, Tünde aims to capture a fictional world through a non-fictional scene.
This allows her audience to look at a piece of art that looks like it came straight out of a movie. However, it could’ve been taken on the same street you pass by walking to work every morning.
“This is surrealism to the core.”
Tünde and changing career paths to street photography
Dreams change, paths curve, and passions can be planted like tiny seeds in the soil. Tünde’s original plan, since she was 8 years old, was to become a writer, and she succeeded. She became a published writer at the age of 26 in London, with a dream of becoming a music journalist where she began interning for a magazine.
This is where her street photography started to take over, Tünde had to take her own photos to add context and visual aesthetics to her articles. This is where she noticed that her photos might be better than her writing. Tünde chases the satisfaction she gets from the dopamine release of her art.
Capturing her subjects, seeing the audience’s reactions to her art, and more than ever – seeing people get her work tattooed on their skin. These are all motivation for this street photography mastermind.
Advice to the ones to come
As an introverted workaholic, Tünde finds peace in spending her nights’ planning, shooting, and editing. As a piece of grounded advice to those looking to pursue such a life, Tünde stresses how hard and challenging this career choice can be.
If you really want it, you are going to have to sacrifice a lot of things, you might even have to sacrifice a normal life.
“It’s not about what school is teaching you, it’s not just about going to classes. It has to be your f****** passion, it has to be something that you breathe, eat, and drink, or else it not going to happen.”
Self-taught street photography
Tünde never studied street photography; she is fully self-taught. However, she is now teaching photography to students. Her dedication to pursuing a career in photography allowed her to pour her heart and soul into a lifestyle that she really wanted.
Believing in yourself as an artist and believing that your work is important is a vital piece in making it, in Tünde ‘s experience. She strongly believes that to be able to create beautiful and meaningful art you must get experienced in different areas of life first.
Lessons learned
So, what can we learn from Tünde? Travel, experience, witness and live. Go outside of your comfort zone. Art is not only about the process, but about the ideas and the vision you bring to the table, and these need to come from somewhere. So go out in the world and look for them.
Tünde, a Blade Runner-inspired night, street, neon-noir and lastly fine art photographer offers many services to clients. Night street photo sessions, brand collaborations, prints & merchandise are just a few examples.