25.04.1909, Korpona – 31.03.1978, Budapest

In 1927, Kàlmàn entered the Alice Madzsar Dance and Movement Art School in Budapest, where by chance she met Kata Sugar, who would along her become the other leading artist of the sociographic photography movement, and Ivan Hevesy, photographic aesthete and her future husband. It was Hevesy that initially encouraged her to take up photography in 1931.

Kàlmàn developed a distinctive style, which made her famous quickly. Her initial work focused on sociographic portraits of Hungary’s peasantry, the unemployed, and children; and have been influenced by the New Objectivity movement. Her later work included portraits of many of Hungary’s cultural contributors, among them Bartok, Pasztory, and Moricz. She published three well-received albums, of which the first Tiborc (1937) was a great success. She worked also as an editor, was involved in publishing a series of books on photographers, which included a book on her own life and work that was published after her death in 1978.

Kàlmàn has won the Bela Balazs Prize (1969) and the Honoured Artist Award (1976).