PHOTOMONTH IN KRAKOW — 2011 
SHOWOFF SECTION 2011
As every year, the Photomonth in Kraków Festival is also a place for those who are just setting out on their creative journey. The ShowOFF Section is an opportunity to have professionals look at your project and prepare the appropriate exhibition setting with them.
Every year, this part of the festival matures and evolves. We have moved from coffee shops to gallery spaces and new, exciting locations. The projects presented in the Section become ever more mature, as do their creators.
ShowOFF, which was until recently called “a space without a curator”, has transformed into a professional review supported by well-known Polish photographers and photographic theorists: Magda Wunsche, Agnieszka Samsel, Wojtek Wieteska, MikoĹaj DĹugosz, Krzysztof Miller, RafaĹ Milach, and Kuba Ĺwircz, all of whom were both members of the jury and curators of the exhibition.
This year, the ShowOFF Section received over five hundred entries, from which the jury chose twelve projects. The winners are: Artur JastrzÄbski, Karol Kaczorowski, Ula Klimek, Tomasz Liboska and Michat JÄdrzejowski, BartĹomiej Lurka, Wojciech Marzec, Bartosz MateĹko, Maciej Niesiony, Maciej Nowaczyk, Mateusz Sadowski, Yulka Wilam, and Piotr Zbierski.
The chosen projects, often drawing on classic photographical themes, are astonishing in the freshness of the artists’ vision, and mark out the direction young Polish photography is heading. From 13 May they will be presented at solo shows scattered around the centre of Kraków.
The Festival Bureau will be exhibiting the artists’ portfolios, and there will be an opportunity to purchase selected works printed in limited editions.
Jury and curators ShowOFF Section 2011:
MikoĹaj DĹugosz, b. ‘75
Graduated from the Film School in ĹódĹş. He has collaborated with many Polish and foreign illustrated magazines with a wide range of topics. His photos have been published in "Playboy", "Polityka", "Przekrój", "A4", "Piktogram", "Gazeta Wyborcza", the Italian "L’Uomo Vogue", and many others. He won the Chimera prize for his cover of the "Life Style" magazine. He co-created the first editions of the cult "Notes na 6 tygodni".
He has participated in over twenty individual and group exhibitions. His photos have been exhibited at FF Gallery (ĹódĹş, 2005), ZOO Gallery (Warsaw, 2005), and Yours Gallery (Warsaw, 2006). He presented works as part of the Nova Polska festival in Lille, and exhibited his Polska Diary project at the Parisian Centre Georges Pompidou – an hour long presentation of two thousand photos to the musical backdrop by Laktop. DĹugosz has already participated in jury deliberations of the ShowOFF Section, and we have had an opportunity to see photos from his Real Foto cycle during the main programme of Photomonth in Kraków 2008. Author of three albums: Pogoda Ĺadna, aĹź Ĺźal wyjeĹźdĹźaÄ [The Weather’s So Nice It’s a Shame to Leave] (2006), Real foto (2008), 1994 (2010).
RafaĹ Mialch, b. ’78.
Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice and the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava (Czech Republic). He is currently freelancing in Warsaw. His photos have been published in "Time", "Newsweek", "GQ", "Le Monde 2", "Courrier International", and "D de Repubblicca".
His best known works – Disappearing Circus, Black Sea of Concrete and 7 Rooms – have been presented at Photoespana, Look3 and Fotografia festivals, and at the Museum for Contemporary Art MoCA Shanghai. They also form a part of a permanent exhibition at the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Japan.
RafaĹ Milach’s debut album, entitled Szare (The Grey), was published in 2002. In 2007 his works were qualified to the Joop Swart Masterclass as part of World Press Photo, and his project was awarded the Worlds Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International and Photography Book Now prizes.
He currently runs lessons on documentary photography at the Academy of Photography in Warsaw. He is also a co-founder of the art photography group Sputnik Photos.
Krzysztof Miller, b. ’62.
News photographer for "Gazeta Wyborcza" since its inception in 1989. He has photographed wars, armed conflicts, coups and upheavals in the former Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova, Nagorno-Karabakh, Chechnya, Tajikistan, Republic of South Africa, Southern Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Afghanistan and Iraq. His photos have illustrated numerous publications: Taliban: Militant Islam by Ahmed Rashid, Irak – piekĹo w raju [Iraq – Hell in Heaven] by PaweĹ SmoleĹski, and books by Wojciech Jagielski – Modlitwa o deszcz [Praying for Rain], WieĹźe z kamienia [Stone Towers] and Dobre miejsce do umierania [A Good Place to Die].
In 2000 he was a juror at World Press Photo. He studies and hosts workshops on photo journalism and news photography at the Film School in ĹódĹş.
He is a co-founder of photography groups slowphoto, artyĹci 24h and nie ma chuja na mariole.
The latest projects by the slowphoto group, known as post-photography, are being created at the Psychiatry and Combat Stress Clinic in Warsaw. Since October 2010 Miller has been holding post-stress therapy sessions for Polish soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan to help them deal with combat trauma.
Jakub Ĺwircz, b. ‘84.
Philosopher, curator, photography theorist. He is interested in issues concerning the impact of photography on mass imagination, its politics, and the current state of photography as a form of art.
For the past four years he has been involved with the Yours Gallery Foundation, where he works as assistant curator. He has worked on such well-known exhibitions as Michael Light’s 100 Suns and Bownik’s Gamers. He has also organised a retrospective into films by Reiner Holzemer.
At Yours Gallery he organises a cycle of discussion meetings on the subject of photography. His guests have included Karolina Lewandowska, Wojtek Nowicki, Adam Mazur and Kuba DÄ
browski.
Since 2010 he has been running a series of original lectures entitled Kulturowe funkcjonowanie fotografii [Cultural function of photography].
Wojtek Wieteska, b. ’64.
Photographer, director. He graduated from the Cinematography and TV Production Department at the Film School in ĹódĹş, and studied history of art at the University of Warsaw and Sorbonne IV in Paris.
He has spent time in Australia, North Africa, South America, the Middle and Far East, Europe, Japan and the USA, which has inspired him to create individual photography projects: 36 x ParyĹź, RzeczywistoĹÄ, Far West, Tokyo, N.Y.C.#02, Martwa Natura, and Flights 91_08, which have been exhibited in many museums and galleries in Poland and around the world.
His photographs have been featured in "Gazeta Wyborcza" and its Magazine, "Rzeczpospolita", "Pozytyw", "VIVA!", "Twój Styl", "Elle", "Cosmopolitan", "Marie-Claire", "Voyage", "Fototapeta", "Shots", "MiÄdzy Nami", "Przekrój", "ZwierciadĹo", "Pani", "Junge Kunst", "Gala", and "Gaga" magazine.
Since 1993 Wieteska has also been working in photography and promotional films for the most important advertising agencies in Poland.
He is a winner of numerous prizes at photography and film festivals and competitions: Kreatura ’95, Pinnacle DDB ’98, Agfa szansa Pro ’98, ZĹote OrĹy 2000, ZĹote OrĹy 2003 (nomination), Kreatura 2005 and 2006.
He is involved in many social campaigns by the Polish Humanitarian Action, Caritas, Warsaw Children’s Hospice, Fundacja Ĺw. MikoĹaja and Amazons Foundation.
Wieteski’s photographs are held in private collections in Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Japan and the USA. He lectures at the Film School in ĹódĹş and the Theatre Academy in Warsaw. He is currently working on a cycle entitled PL 1986-2010.
Magdalena Wunsche & Samsel
Magda Wunsche was born in Poland, and her family emigrated to Switzerland soon after. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Gallen and L’Ecole de la Photographie Creative in Lausanne. She also graduated from the Modern Dance ballet school in Zurich.
For the past three years she has been in a photography team with Agnieszka Samsel. Wunsche & Samsel have collaborated on magazines including "Wallpaper", "Syntax", "Elle", "Twój Styl", "Glamour", "Marie Claire", "Cosmopolitan" and "Philosophie", and with advertising agencies Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, McCann Ericson, Young & Rubicam, BBDO, Low GGK, Scholz & Friends, DDB, Ogilvy, G7, and Change.
Their works have been displayed at many exhibitions in Poland and abroad: Le nouveaux publicitaires, Transphotographiques, Tri Postal, Lille, France; Dialog – Edward Steichen and contemporary portrait photography, Pauza Gallery, Kraków; Fashion Invasion – Festiwal inSpiracje 2010/ glamour, Szczecin; Faces – Abbaye De Neumunster, Luxembourg.
Their projects have been awarded many prizes at international competitions. The awards include 2006 KTR (bronze), 2007 Cannes Lions (National Diploma), 2007 Europe’s Premier Creative Awards – Epica (bronze Epica), 2008 KTR (gold and two silvers), 2009 KTR (two silvers and a bronze), and 2010 KTR (gold).
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