At the beginning of the 20th century, agriculture was thriving in the Hungarian farmlands. The owners of self-supporting farms with huge strips of land were fairly poor, but managed to get by. At the end of the 1940s over one million people lived in the rural farmlands of Hungary. During the years of communism, the farms were sucked into the industry and the collective farms, so by the early 1990s, only 200,000 people stayed, and their number is strongly decreasing. Most of the young move away to find jobs in far away cities, as droughts and lack of modern machinery hinder families with small land to live from agriculture. The elderly remain, and those who couldn't live without their freedom and tranquility, but they face hardships every day. Each year more and more abandoned farms are destroyed, to give space for farming companies "“ endles fields of crops are growing where once families were raised.
Kató and Jani use a flashlight in want of lighting, and their TV is plugged into a battery as their farm near Bicere lacks electricity.
Having no electricity and refrigerator, the Péter family cook as much as they eat each day on their farm near Nyársapát.
Istvanne Galla steps out of her home near the village of Nyarsapat, Hungary.
Csontos picks corn near Bicere
Tamara Kiss washes the dishes at her family’s farm, which lacks electricity, in Nyársapát, but she wouldn’t move even to a village for all the money in the world. She couldn’t stand the four walls of her distant dormitory, where locked away from nature, she wanted to commit suicide. Having left school, she moved back home and works as a day labourer on a nearby farm.
Farmer in his greenhouse near Nyársapát.
The Sunday mass is received via an indoor antenna through a battery-powered TV at a farm which lacks electricity near Törtel.
Péter Gallai has left his village, when he was eighteen to search for his father, who has left their family long ago, and lived on a farm. Now Péter lives in his father's old farm, which lacks electricity, and earns money as a day labourer at the farms nearby.
Ambrus Pesti holds a broken legged newborn lamb in his arms on his farm near Nyársapát.
Kati Kiss chops wood outside her family’s farm near Nyarsapat, in southern Hungary. “When I go to Koros town to visit my son, I feel like I’m in a prison. Only the caretaker’s hearse can take me from my farm.â€
Xénia Horváth on her Kindergarten picture on her Families farm, near Somogysárd. Xénia turned sixteen this year, but after his fathers and mothers tragic death she has to take care of her younger sister and brother, and raise them up.
Farmer, near Békés.
Janos Gera sits in his kitchen near Morahalom, in southern Hungary. Janos is living with a mental disability. He had a factory job in the town nearby, but as the factory has now closed, he stays at home on his farm most of the time.
Ernone Faggyas stands by her garden well near Morahalom, in southern Hungary. Ernone’s son drowned in a nearby lake as a child, the tragedy hit her family hard.
Sándor Kisst by the wood he reserved for the winter near Nyársapát.
With no bathroom to speak of, Sanyi Székely takes a bath each night in a basin. As their farm near Nyársapáti lacks electricity, he does his homework by candlelight.