"Myśląc o fotografii" [Thinking About Photography], an exhibition of graduates of the Jastrzębie School of Documentary Photography.

"Photography pursued with attention and consistency requires repeated returns and close looks at what seems obvious on a daily basis.

The works made by the students of the Jastrzębie School of Documentary Photography follow this trail. In the stories presented here there is no cool distance, but rather deep entanglement. The exhibition of works made over the past year consists of personal voices. It proposes an image that makes no claim to being an objective portrait of the region or of the present day. Its strength lies precisely in its subjectivity – in unobvious details, in attentiveness to what is intimate, and in the courage to confront subjects that concern us directly.

In some of the artistic projects the body and memory come to the fore as fundamental planes for building identity. For Marta Szyszka, the biological concept of the matrix leads to a reflection on transmission between generations and is a way of examining mother-daughter relationships. Magdalena Szymańska explores how an autoimmune disease leaves its mark on a woman's image and sense of self-worth, while Kasia Rysiak uses photography as a medium that helps find new forms of representation beyond binary gender categories – in images of the body she searches for a universal humanity. Milena Soporowska, in turn, referring to the history of hysteria, asks whether true rest is possible in the world of late capitalism. Magdalena Noga tries to fill the void in her relationship with her absent mother – using her own body, she interacts with the events recorded in family photographs, thereby making time and space fold.

In other works the same thread of memory becomes an autonomous problem – Joanna Figarska explores memories of her great-grandparents' house, which has not existed for years. Confronting the various, often contradictory accounts of family members, she creates a new image of the place from them. Natalia Knycz, starting from a dream that both she and her sisters dreamt in childhood, looks for a way to form a new bond with her siblings now that the fears and uncertainty of adolescence they shared belong to the past. In the story of the local hero Jerzy Radomski, Aneta Czarnocka-Kanik sees not only a personal feat but also the courage that his years-long voyage demanded of his family.

History understood as an element of collective identity also interests Agnieszka Kowalczyk – through the lens of the closing Wujek coal mine she tells the story of Silesia's transformation. Adrian Jędrkowiak searches for traces of a bygone reality on the overgrown embankment of railway line 159.

A change of perspective allows us to see entirely new meanings in the world around us. It is precisely this sensitivity that guides works which could be called meticulous analyses of selected ecosystems – both natural and social. Maciek Przemyk tenderly and inquisitively follows the transformations of a meadow on the Oder in the context of changing development plans. Radosław Czapla exposes the utopian idea of „no kill”, observing life around the Dzierżno Duże reservoir – from ecological disaster to the angling competitions organised there today. Dominik Gajda documents the transformations of the Silesian landscape, where new lakes and drying rivers become direct testimony to changes in mining.

Paulina Bajorowicz, in turn, explores social hierarchies and responsibility through the prism of the relationship between humans and dogs. 
Konrad Bryczek sees in fantasy conventions a laboratory of social creativity.

In the limited space of the exhibition we do not attempt to present these complex, multi-threaded projects in full; we confine ourselves to short fragments of them and to textual commentaries by the authors. It is an invitation to reflect together on how we are entangled in the world and how, with the help of photography, we can try to redefine it."

 

Michał Sita - JSFD programme coordinator

 

participants in the exhibition:

 

Paulina Bajorowicz
Konrad Bryczek
Radosław Czapla
Aneta Czarnocka-Kanik
Joanna Figarska
Dominik Gajda
Adrian Jędrkowiak
Natalia Knycz
Agnieszka Kowalczyk
Magdalena Noga
Maciek Przemyk
Kasia Rysiak
Milena Soporowska
Magdalena Szymańska
Marta Szyszka

 

 

exhibition opening:
20 February, 18:30

 

meeting with the artists:
21 February, 12:00

 

exhibition dates:
20 February – 15 March 2026

 

Wed–Fri 16:00–20:00
Sat–Sun 12:00–18:00

 

Pracownia Wschodnia
ul. Wł. Skoczylasa 8
Warsaw

 

 

 

 

The event is organised in collaboration with the Niezależni Association – Jastrzębie Photography Club.