Picture: © Chris Lanaway, 2010.
In 2023 the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit celebrates its 15th anniversary.
Picture: © Chris Lanaway, 2010.

March 2023

This page contains all the articles that were uploaded in March 2023, chronologically sorted, from old to new.
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2023-03-05

Feri Lukas, photographer

Skinhead by Feri Lukas
Skinhead.

Divide and Conquer

The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit is not here to divide, quite the contrary. We are not that squabbling lot that goes by the names of Roger Waters and David Gilmour. Perhaps more about that arthritic gang in a later post, because frankly, they bore us with their childlike games.

This blog is of such a specialised nature that it is only visited by a dozen unique visitors a day. We’re quite happy with that. We operate in something that is euphemistically called a niche market, despite a bucket-load of world exclusives that we have revealed over the years.

Autonomous and free – that is what we want to be. The Church sometimes has a foul mouth, and this is by design. We deliberately want to be the Lego block under Pink Floyd's foot. Take, for instance, the recent Pink Floyd row, initiated by a tweet from Polly ‘Ono’ Samson. The three big, so-called independent, Floydian websites didn’t write about it, not a single word. There is also silence about Roger Waters’ speech for the United Nations, except for Brain Damage, which casually mentions it. These websites are nothing but good dogs, leashed by Paul Loasby, who uses an electric shock collar.

Mizoram

The Church likes to write about connections that aren’t necessarily linked to the Floyd. If you ask us for our most precious achievement, it is the one that happened in June 2021 when Iggy’s family members from Mizoram (India) found back their long-lost relatives in England, after nearly half a century. (See: Mizoram.) 

Iggy’s dream was to become a model, a film star, or both. That’s probably why she was hanging around with actors, musicians, photographers, and moviemakers until the mid-seventies. Unfortunately, she wasn’t ambitious and assertive enough to push herself to the fore. There were opportunities, but Iggy’s many phobias made her back out. She could have modelled for Quorum and English Boy and even refused to be an extra in Performance. Even when she was allegedly asked by Storm Thorgerson for an interview for his Have You Got It Yet documentary, she declined at the last minute.

Despite her shyness, several pictures made it into the (music) magazines. Some of these were taken by Feri Lukas. (See: Amateur Photographer: New Iggy Picture Found! from March 2020.)

Punks by Feri Lukas
Punks. Lukas.
Sonny, Record Mirror, 1966
Sonny Bono, Record Mirror, 1966.

Feri Lukas

Not a lot is known about Lukas. He was a Hungarian refugee who obtained asylum in England and who worked for photographer Dezo Hoffmann, and that’s about it.

A while ago we were contacted by Feri’s nephew, ‘Georgie Boy’ Lukàc, whose father, Emil, was Feri’s older brother. Here is what he told the Church.

Feri Lukas was born in Budapest, (Hungary) in 1926. He grew up in a small town called Jàszapàti, a town in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok county, in the Northern Great Plain region of central Hungary. He had an older brother, Emil.

Feri studied pharmacy in university but was kicked out in the late 40s by the communists. His parents were too ‘bourgeois’ and the regime only wanted sons of labourers to get to university.

In 1956, there was a popular uprising against the communist dictatorship. The rebels managed to open the border with Austria. Thousands of Hungarians crossed the border. Among them was Ferenc Lukàcs, who stayed in an Austrian refugee camp.

Hungarian Revolution

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic.

It began on October 23, 1956, in Budapest, when university students protested against the USSR's geopolitical dominance of Hungary through the Stalinist government of Mátyás Rákosi. Policemen from the ÁVH (State Protection Authority) shot and killed several of the protesters.

Hungarians organized revolutionary militias to fight against the ÁVH. Communist leaders and ÁVH policemen were captured, killed, or lynched. Political prisoners were released and armed. A new government disbanded the ÁVH and declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact.

The USSR repressed the Hungarian Revolution on November 4, 1956. The repression of the Hungarian Uprising killed 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet Army soldiers and compelled 200,000 Hungarians to seek political refuge abroad. (Source: Wikipedia.)

Feri Lukas, date unknown
Feri Lukas, date unknown (1960-1970).
Cher, Record-Mirror, 1966
Cher, Record Mirror, 1966.

London, 1957

In 1957, Lukas received political asylum in Britain, where he changed his name to Feri Lukas. Feri is a nickname for the Hungarian Ferenc, the English Francis.

He started to work as a photographer with Dezső Hoffmann, aka Dezo Hoffmann, a famous photographer who was Hungarian as well. Feri was single all his life and lived in London until 1994. He decided to move back to Hungary, where he died in 2005.

Unfortunately, all his pictures got lost because the people who were asked to conserve his archive sold his photos at a flea market in Budapest. 

Georgie Boy:

This is his biography in short. I am very happy someone remembers him after so many years! 

Glamour

A couple of years after our initial article, browsing the internet reveals some photographs that have been sold at online auction houses. It seems that Lukas, after his stint with Dezo Hoffmann, went into glamour and fashion photography, as is shown in the picture below from 1991.

Jackie Orme Ward? 1991
Jackie Orme Ward, 1991. Picture taken by Jackie’s landlord, photographer Feri Lukas. (Source: The History of Pendragon year by year 1991.)

So that’s it for now. Not a lot, I hear you say, but perhaps some more news will get to us one of these...

Hereafter some extra pictures from Feri Lukas, stolen from various auction sites on the web. Warning: there are some naked b⊚⊚bs which may result in temporary blindness for minors.

Feri Lukas Feri Lukas Feri Lukas FeriLukas
Glamour pictures by Feri Lukas, dates unknown.

The Church wishes to thank: ‘Georgie Boy’ Lukàc, Jackie Orme Ward. All pictures: Feri Lukas.
♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥

Feri Lukas @ The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit:
Iggy - a new look in festivals 
Iggy - another festival, another look 
Amateur Photographer: New Iggy Picture Found! 
Feri Lukas, photographer 
Viennese Iggy Treasure Found! 


2023-03-18

Family Reunion #2

Mizo Family.
Mizo Family.

A couple of weeks ago, we received a pretty cryptic message from Iggy’s Mizo branch.

Thank you so much once again, the unthinkable has indeed become a reality.

For those not in the know, a short reminder.

Iggy was always vague about the roots on her mother’s side. It was believed that her Asian relatives were from Pakistan. It was revealed shortly after her death that her mother was from Mizoram, a state in the North Eastern Region of India.

In the late 1950s, a famine (also known as Mautâm) broke out. It was badly followed up by the Indian government. This led to the 1966 Mizo National Front uprising with a declaration of independence. The Indian air force retaliated with airstrikes, and the armed conflict was soon over. However, it took two decades before the 1986 Mizoram Peace Accord was signed.

The Indian government isolated Mizoram during the insurgency by intercepting all communication with the outside world. Letters were censored and/or destroyed.

When communication was finally restored, Iggy’s parents had moved, and the Mizoram branch couldn’t locate them any more.

Fast-forward to June 2021, when an article from The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit (or one of its counterparts on Tumblr, Facebook, or Instagram) was intercepted by someone in the Mizoram internet community.

Family relations were restored, but, due to the pandemic, visits were not possible. Until now... Thana Hnamte messaged us the following.

A family reunion did take place right in the hills of Mizoram. My cousin Stephen and his wife visited us on a journey of discovery from 26 February to 9 March. We had a wonderful yet emotional family get-together, made possible by your innocuous Facebook post.

Here is a picture of that family reunion.

Iggy is probably watching them from the heavens.

Family Reunion 2023
Family Reunion 2023.

Many thanks to: Thana Hnamte and the family members from Mizoram and England. Pictures: Mimi Hnamte.
♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥