Szaladják „Taikyo” István

Szaladják „Taikyo” István is a Hungarian artist whose ink photographs sit between photography and painting. Drawing on Zen and the tradition of Chinese and Japanese ink painting, he creates his images with a special technique that combines digital and manual methods, often printed at large scale on watercolour paper.

His pictures are built from two elements: white space and black-grey tones. For Taikyo, the white is the formative power, a radiant space of creation and consciousness that shapes the world. As Zen teaches, the mountains are mountains and the rivers are rivers.

Some of his works were shown in Taikyo: Journey with Hiroshige at the Robert Capa Contemporary Photography Center in Budapest. His exhibition Tus-fényképek (Ink Photographs) at House of Lucie Budapest in 2025 included works up to 3.5 metres long alongside smaller versions.