You know it: an AEGEE event takes place and already after one day hundreds of photos are all over the Internet. Can you imagine how a Summer University about photography would be like? A course where you can learn how to make better photos? Where the teachers are real experts? An event that takes place in two or Europe’s most beautiful cities? Curious? Then don’t hesitate and apply right now for the Summer University “500 Photos of Summer”, organized by AEGEE-Budapest, taking place in Budapest and Pécs from 2 till 16 July. The two main organisers, Brigitta “Brigi” Puskás and Luca Gallyas told the Golden Times more about the event.
Golden Times: Why will the SU of AEGEE-Budapest be one of the best Summer Universities this year?
Brigi & Luca: Well this is easy! First of all it will take place in Hungary’s biggest cultural centres, Budapest of course, and Pécs! Both of these cities are a must! Secondly the participants can embrace Hungarian culture and experience its famous hospitality. Last but not least we’ve put together a very colourful program on both professional and casual grounds! There are only two Summer Course Pluses this year, and one of them is ours – we hope to live up to that name and give a little more than an average SU.
Golden Times: The title is “500 Photos of SUmmer” Why did you choose photography as main topic?
Brigi & Luca: We wanted to do something that has never been done before here at AEGEE-Budapest. Most of us, the board and the members as well, agreed that this year’s Summer University should get a topic, something more professional or more serious than just parties and sightseeing. We both are fond of arts and creativity, and we decided that an artistic theme would add a nice frame to the SU, won’t ruin the fun, but can be very serious sometimes and provides many opportunities and challenges for the participants!
Golden Times: What is your personal background in photography?
Brigi & Luca: When we decided to apply to be main organizers, we immediately agreed on planning a photography themed SU proposal. We both are really into photography! We are familiar with some of the more serious background and we practice photography whenever we have the chance, but all in all we are only amateurs with great enthusiasm. To be honest, we, too, are looking forward to learn even more on our SU from the professional teachers!
Golden Times: How big is the interest in your SU so far? What kind of feedback did you get from interested people?
Brigi & Luca: Many people are interested in our event, and we are very happy about that! People were asking about the experience and equipment required for the SU. We would like to take this oportunity to repeat: there’s no requirement for any level of photography experience, nor for the quality of the camera used! Although there will be a few activities involving taking photos, the emphasis is on fun and learning, it isn’t a “professioanl photographers only” programme – not at all! We also got messages and e-mails from people outside of AEGEE who found us on on Facebook and are interested in our event because of the photographic focus. Of course, we were trying to encourage them to join AEGEE by telling them more about the organization, Summer Universities and how great all these things are!
Golden Times: You will have professional photography teachers. What’s their background?
Brigi & Luca: Fortunately we have some connections with students who are learning in Hungary’s top design university, so mostly, they are going to provide the professional background.We are aiming to reach other freelance photographers or maybe a fashion photographer to make the palette more colorful, but that’s only in the state of e-mails right now.
Golden Times: What will they teach the participants?
Brigi & Luca: It’s not all set yet. We are planning to send a questionnaire to the participants after having accepted them to find out what exactly would fascinate them the most. We are inclined to offer a wide range of workshops, a part of them about Hungary, its culture and its customs and the other part about photography. These will not only be about photographic topics in theory, we would like to encourage the participants to be creative and use what they heard and learnt in practice.
Golden Times: Will there be certain exercises for the participants?
Brigi & Luca: We have many workshop ideas on culture and photography. The main idea is to provide knowledge on the professional background and right after that give a task – for example during a thematic city tour – where the participants can experience in real life what they’ve learnt in theory beforehand. Most of the excercises will evolve around this concept.
Golden Times: You will also be in a photo studio. What can you tell about that?
Brigi & Luca: We decided at the very beginning that a photo-themed SU wouldn’t be complete without a visit to a studio. We wouldn’t like to reveal everything just now, but we are planning to devote almost an entire day to this programme and we will spend that time on the campus of the design university we’ve mentioned earlier, which is a very calm and inspiring place. We will be joined by photography students, and there will not only be digital photos taken with professional equipment, but the participants may get a look into a real darkroom and manually process their photos…
Golden Times: Budapest is an amazing and beautiful city. Which places will play a role in the photography lessons?
Brigi & Luca: Obviously we can’t miss the main turist attractions such as the Parliament, Heroes’s Square, Buda Castle and the Chain Bridge, but as we will spend nine days there, the plan is to introduce some not as famous corners of Budapest as well. For example we are going to have a city tour in the Jewish District and a boatride on the Danube.
Golden Times: You will also go to Pécs, another of the most beautiful cities in Hungary. What should people look most forward there?
Brigi & Luca: Our SC+ is two weeks long, this amount of time is enough to get to know more than one city. Budapest is definitely what comes to most foreigners’ minds when thinking about Hungary. People tend to forget that there are many other places worth visiting! If one decides to discover the country outside of the capital, Pécs is a good start. We will spend five days there. As you said, it’s one of the most beautiful Hungarian cities with countless things to see! It has a particularly long and rich history and many buildings and monuments stand as a witness to that. It’s also home to one of the most famous Hungarian universities, and for this, it holds the qualities of a real student city with its nightlife and other opportunities. Moreover, many members of AEGEE-Budapest – including one of the main organizers Luca, and our president Kristóf – are originally from there, so we won’t need any tour guides since they know every corner by heart…
Golden Times: Another highlight will be the wine cellars in Villany. What can you say about that visit?
Brigi & Luca: We’ve mentioned in our description that we are going to give an insight to Hungarian culture, and of course good wine is a well-worth part of it. That’s not the only reason though! The wine region has several beautiful little villages where we’ll walk around to really breathe in the atmosphere of the countryside before we visit the winery.
Golden Times: Are there other activities you would like to mention? I read something about kayaking…
Brigi & Luca: Yeah, kayaking on River Dráva is an optional but highly recommended programme item which will take place in the second part of the SU. After more than one week of urban discoveries in Budapest, we thought it would be a cool change to make the participants try something adventurous surrounded outside the city in a natural environement. It’s a really popular freetime activity among the habitants of Pécs. Aside from that, speaking of a culture-themed SU, it’s not going to be one without visits to a few museums. Both Budapest and Pécs are a real treat to museum-lovers, so we a picked our favourites, such as the House of Terror is Budapest or the Gyugyi Collection of amazing Zsolnay porcelains in Pécs. Moreover, it’s not for sure yet, but we are thinking about devoting one morning to the amazing Ecseri flea market of Budapest where everybody can find old curiosities for their own taste.
Golden Times: What’s the involvement of your co-organiser, the Culture WG?
Brigi & Luca: We came across a video of the CWG where they listed the requirements to win their cooperation, we thought it went well together with our original idea, it gave a nice content to our SU. In addition they are promoting 500 Photos of SUmmer on their website! All in all, we love the CWG!
Golden Times: How is the atmosphere in your organizing team?
Brigi & Luca: So far, most of the work has been done by us two, because in those cases immediate and fast communication was essential. We already learnt loads about how to divide work effectively while constantly letting each other know everything about everything so that we have a full view over the situation. Even after this short time, we can absolutely feel the improvement of our organization skills. The best thing about the two of us working together is that we became a good team and real friends. However, we didn’t have to do everything alone, there are many people that have already given us a helping hand. From now on, we are planning to try to involve more and more members of AEGEE-Budapest in the organizing process and we hope that we can form a well established team by the time the participants arrive.
Golden Times: Will you try out programme elements together before the participants arrive?
Brigi & Luca: Yes, we are definitely planning to organize programmes together with everybody else before the SU.
Golden Times: How much is the participation fee?
Brigi & Luca: As we are organizing a two week long SC+, so the fee is 180 Euro.
Golden Times: What else should potential participants know about the event?
Brigi & Luca: Many people were interested about where the SU ends. It’s officially ending on the 16th July in Pécs, but as for the way back to Budapest, most of our organizers are from there, so there will probably be a huge group of people going by train together back to the capital.To find out more about the SU, feel free to visit our new website, our Facebook page or, if you have questions or anything else on your mind, write to us: su2013@aegee-budapest.hu
More info:
SU website: http://500photosofsummer.tumblr.com/,
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AegeeBudapestSummerUniversity2013
