Ernő Weisz, 23-year-old Factory Worker, Budapest (Weisz Ernő, 23 éves gyári munkás, Budapest), from the series "Tiborc"

A dancer by training, Kata Kálmán took up photography in 1931 and quickly embraced the politically engaged documentary movement known in parts of central Europe as “social photography.” She produced many portraits of the homeless and hungry with closely framed views that solicit compassion chiefly through intense, detailed depictions of facial expressions. In 1937 Kálmán published a collection of these images in her first, sensational photobook Tiborc, named after the oppressed character in József Katona’s 1821 novel The Viceroy (Bánk bán). The album tells personal stories of hardship through photographic portraits and accompanying biographical vignettes. This photograph, along with the corresponding text, relates the subject’s experiences of intense physical labor and suffering; at age 23, he is prematurely aged and worn out from factory work. Reviewers praised Kálmán’s book for its ingenuity and honesty.