About Me

My real name is Margryth Lea Rosza, but I am known professionally as "Ronile," pronounced ron-uh-lee.

I was born in 1941 in Apatfalva, Hungary, a small town in the southeastern part of the country, near the Jugoslavian border. My mother was an artist– a painter, and my father owned a shoe store, but he was also a very talented amateur sculptor. I inherited my artistic talent from both sides of my family. Mother told me that from the time I was first able to hold a crayon, I knew I wanted to be an artist.

My mother was my first art teacher. Later I was able to study with various local teachers. As I grew to adulthood, I received many accolades for my realistic landscapes and still lifes.

This is one of my very early paintings. My mother thought it showed I had real talent, and she framed it and hung it in the kitchen.




















I frequently used a camera as sort of a sketchbook to record ideas for my paintings. I enjoyed using the camera so much that by around 1965, I became more interested in photography than painting as a means of self expression.

I never had any formal training in photography because I felt it might impede my growing desire to record images in an unconventional manner. So as a photographer, I am essentially self-taught.

I did have to master the technicalities of the camera, but after I understood the realationship of shutter speed and aperture, and how to focus, I went on to exploit the possibilities of deliberately violating the basic principles of what most people would regard as "good" photography. My photographs are characterized by indefinite focusing, over- and underexposure, and an unsteady camera.

I've received many awards and prizes for my cutting-edge photographs. This is what one reviewer of my work wrote, "Ronile’s iconoclastic art is profound and humorless, persuading us to look within ourselves to discover the internal meaning of her external images."

My photographs have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout Hungary and western Europe, and I am pleased to say they are sought after by many collectors. My first recognition in the United States was a feature article about me in the April 2002 issue of Popular Photography. I was also written up on the website of the New York Institute of Photography.