Maxime Ballesteros Gets Lost in The City of Baths

In his latest editorial instalment for SSENSE, photographer Maxime Ballesteros travels to Budapest to capture Lilla, Dóra, and Bianca Berenyi, in the cold Hungarian winter. On their way to the capital, the group stop in at the floating, stilted fisherman’s houses of Bokod, on the Lake Bokodi, which never freezes over on account of being used as a cooling pond for a nearby power plant. From there, they visit Bianca’s neighbors in the town of Csákvár, who live a quiet life across from a cemetery, producing their own wine. This place is eerie, and beautiful; quaint though energetic. Once arriving in Budapest they relax at the historic Széchenyi spa, hosting the largest thermal bath in all of Europe. An impressive Neo-Baroque palace circa 1913 looms over the water, the type of anachronistic architecture that lends the city so much of its charm. A group of old men play chess in the pools, pleased to have Lilla and Dóra observing their match, upping the stakes of the tournament. At the romantic Vajdahunya castle, Bianca awakens an ancient sculpture, and the team gets stuck in traffic on the way to the Sashalmi market. This city is beautiful and lively in spirit, yet surprisingly quiet, even in its busiest bars. Here, Maxime editorializes the capital, taking Stella McCartney for a goulash dinner, and rolling in the mud with Gucci.