The highlights of the group exhibition Non-Seasonal Changes consists of a series of images by Polish documentary photographers of the The Visavis.pl Photographers’ Collective, Kraków depicting the Polish town of Niepołomice. Niepołomice is a place dramatically transformed since Poland’s entry to the E.U. in 2004. Here the enormous changes of recent years have a familiar face, for instance apartments which have changed due to their owners’ new prosperity, growing awareness of the need to protect the natural environment, the development of civic initiatives and responsibilities by involving the disabled in the local community.
The Visavis.pl Photographers’ Collective, Kraków dedicate their works to comment on reality in a subjective manner, looking for inspiration in the most banal elements of everyday life. Their statements are closely linked with social commentary, which err away from documentary photography in its purest form.
Photographs of changing Niepołomice and its inhabitants have been taken since summer 2006 and the resulting body of work was first exhibited outside Bunkier Sztuki in December 2006 in Kraków. Since then many new works from this project have been on shown at various exhibitions.
Sponsored by the Consular Section of the Polish Embassy in Dublin.
Info
Opening day: 11am-9pm 3 July
Dates: 3-6 July
Opening hours: 11am-6pm
D-light Studios
46 North Great Clarence Street
Dublin 1
Location Map
About the photographers
Padło Tomasz
Born in 1978. PhD student at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He works on space perception and regional geography. He adores travelling, which reflects his passion for geography. He travelled alone to Myanmar, Iranian Kurdistan, has organised trips to Mongolia, the Lebanon and to Ladakhu in the Himalayas. Moreover, or rather above all, he is a socio-documentary oriented photographer.
Krężel Bogdan
The enfant terrible of Polish portrait photography. He graduated from the Photography School at the Łódź Film School. He is a full-time photographer for the oldest Polish weekly illustrated magazine, “Przekrój”. One of the best portrait photographers in Poland. He takes photographs of the most important Polish art and political figures. He is the author of a multitude of covers and illustrations for books printed by Znak Publishers – a publishing house in Kraków, W.A.B Publishers in Warsaw and Prószyński i Ska Publishing Company in Warszawa. The author of individual and collective exhibitions; winner of many prizes.
Krzakiewicz Przemysław
“El Emo” – a photographer, holder of a few biographies. One of them begins with the words “From the beginning, my life was bonded with the socialist planned economy. What distinguished myself from most of my kindergarten friends was the fact that I was a planned child …”. Apparently, there were some people who believed that for instance he worked in the state-owned Bicycle Factory where he was manufacturing shooting wares for partner Arabic countries. A likely version of his biography assumes that Przemysław Krzakiewicz, born in 1975, is the same photographer who, as a sixteen-year-old, made his debut in a socio-cultural weekly “Tygodnik Powszechny”, for years worked for the “Przekrój” weekly magazine and in 2005 founded in Kraków together with Łukasz Trzciński a photo agency Visavis.pl – a dynamic venture of documentary photographers from around Poland and all over the world. The originator of cultural exhibitions and initiatives (in co-operation with Imago Mundi Foundation). At present he works on photo projects: “Free time” and “What we have in common”. The former has been created during the author’s free time; it represents the pure essence of his joy of taking photographs, as spending spare time in taking photographs – showing how people spend their time is the author’s favourite way of spending free time. The latter has a completely different character; it shows portraits of people gathered in one place who joined forces under a common idea. His recent important publications are: “Małopolska. Photographs. Unclarified” and Graphis Photography Annual 2008.
Trzciński Łukasz
Born in 1975 in Kraków, graduated from the Łódź Film School, member of the Association of Polish Art Photographers. Co-founder of The Visavis.pl Photographers’ Collective – a venture gathering top Polish documentary photographers, and the Imago Mundi Foundation, which promotes photography and its authors. Co-organiser of The Photomonth in Kraków. Photographer and reporter, he has worked in over 40 countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Indonesia, Russia and the Middle East. Until recently he has been interested in Central and Eastern Europe. He is an award winner of the “Pictures of the Year International” prestigious documentary photography contest. Repeatedly awarded in the Press Photography Contest, his photographs have twice won the title of The Photo of the Year (1999 & 2000). Scholarship holder from The Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, awarded by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage in the young artists’ programme – Young Poland. Author and curator of many exhibitions in Poland and abroad.
Solik Bartek
Born in 1978 in Zakopane, where he still lives. Appreciated for his observations of everyday life, he received recognition for his documentary photographs published in the daily “Gazeta Wyborcza”, the weekly “Polityka”, “Newsweek” and “Przekrój”. He was nominated for the Grand Press Photo award three times: in 2005, 2006 and 2007. He won the first prize in BZ WBK Press Foto 2006 for his sports photographs. He also won an award in the National Geographic 2005 competition for his photo of lowlanders on the summit of Kasprowy Wierch, Poland. A year later he won the first prize in this competition for a photo from a sleigh race. He won the third place in Newsreportaż 2006 competition in the everyday life category for a cycle of photographs entitled “The Forgotten Olympic Athletes”. The representatives of the media from Krakow awarded him with the title of the Photo Reporter of 2006.
Kramarz Andrzej
Graduated from the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava (Czech Republic). Co-founder of the artistic group DRUT and founding member of the band called Na Przykład (For Example, 1985-19990). He has been a professional documentary photographer since the beginning of 1990s. Co-founder of Imago Mundi Foundation and co-organizer of Photomonth in Kraków. Among his most important individual series of photographs there are: “Things” (“Rzeczy”), “The Black Sea” (“Morze Czarne”), “The clinic” (“Klinika”), “The Infinity of Cognition” (“Nieskończoność poznania”). He won many awards at photography competitions (e.g. Polish Press Photo Competition in 1999 and 2001).
