Photo © Marta Zgierska
Fine Art - 2ND PLACE WINNER: Marta Zgierska
Post
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In 2013, I survived a serious car accident. I was close to death, and reality – one that I had been
adapting to with difficulty – slipped through my fingers. This misfortune brought about another:
surgeries, months of physical limitations, a breakup, and the return and aggravation of anxiety
neurosis.
Not long before the accident, I had found in my family home a teacher's descriptive feedback from
the time I was a seven-year-old, exemplary student. I am still one in my adult life. However, despite
the opinion of others, my limitations, shame and anxiety are still teeming inside me. I started taking
the first photographs as a way of incantation of fear in an aesthetic image. The accident brought
my work to a halt. My mind was filling up with fragmentary memories, and sharp, detached details.
My own physicality and pain became a source of images that felt more and more substantial
and bodily as time passed.
"Post" is a project about trauma, frozen in dead greyness, silence and tension. Everyone can find
their own punctures here – exhausting dreams, fears, obsessions. An individual way of discovering
a twin traumatic memory in another person, “Post” is an attempt at intimate contact which closes
the past non-experience in the present.
-------
Translation (marta_zgierska_post_02.jpg)
"Descriptive evaluation of the primary school student
Class I, the first semester
Pupil Marta Zgierska is talented, conscientious and hard-working. During lessons she is very active and
focused. She has large vocabulary and knowledge. She is able to build a coherent, complex statement,
correct in terms of material and grammar. She reads fluently and expressively. She writes esthetically and
accurately in terms of language and spelling.
She is fluent in mental arithmetic. She solves simple and more complex text exercises. She can apply
practically knowledge she acquires. She is interested in phenomena occurring in nature, she knows their
causes and effects.
She shows extensive interests and talents. She has good manners. She is friendly and liked by other
children.
The Teachers' Board, 19th January, 1995
Małgorzata Smalec"
About author:
Marta Zgierska was born 1987, in Lublin, Poland. She holds MFA in Photography (The Leon Schiller National Film, Television and Theatre School), MA in Theatrology and MA in Journalism (Marie Curie-Sklodowska University). She is a visual artist working at the intersection of art and science. She is interested in trauma studies, liminal experience and a process of withdrawal. She often set themselves up as her subject, deepening the intimate aspect of personal photography. Her work was exhibited at Esther Woerdehoff Gallery (Paris, France), Maison de la Photographie (Lille, France), Musee de la Photographie Andre Villers (Mougins, France), Festival Circulation(s) (Paris, France), Athens Photo Festival (Greece), Malmo Fotobiennal (Sweden). In 2015 she was named one of Lens Culture's Top 50 Emerging Talents. In 2016 she won one of the most prestigious photography awards - Prix HSBC pour la Photographie and also Daylight Photo Awards, Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant, FotoLeggendo Giovanni Tabo Prize and Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award. In the same year she was nominated for the ING Unseen Talent Award. Her project "Post" has been published as a book by Actes Sud in 2016.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2017 Post, Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland
2017 Post, Filter Space Gallery, Chicago, USA
2017 Post, Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Arret sur l'Image Galerie, Bordeaux, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, L'Arsenal, Metz, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Gowen Comtemporary Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2016 Post, Encontros da Imagem International Photography Festival, Braga, Portugal
2016 Post, Bitume Photofest, Lecce, Italy
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Musee de la Photographie Andre Villers, Mougins, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Galerie Sintitulo, Mougins, France
2016 Post, Athens Photo Festival, Greece
2016 Post, FotoLeggendo Festival, Rome, Italy
2016 Post, Festival Circulation(s), Paris, France
2015 Post, Malmo Fotobiennal, Sweden
2015 Post, Pa-ta-ta Festival, Granada, Spain
2012 TIFF Festival Debuts Section, Wroclaw, Poland
2012 Oskoma, FF/ Imaginarium, Gallery, Lodz, Poland
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 Celeste Visible White Photo Prize, Fondazione Studio Marangoni Gallery, Florence, Italy
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, PAD Paris, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Parcours Saint‐Germain, Paris, France
2016 Salon of New Photography, Raster Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2015 LensCulture Emerging Talents, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, USA
2015 Post, Poznan Photo Diploma Award, Maison de la Photographie, Lille, France
2015 Post, Poznan Photo Diploma Award, Biennale of Photography in Poznan, Poland
2015 Post, DongGang International Photo Festival, South Korea
2015 Post, Rencontres de Ghar el Melh, Tunisa
2014 Future Condition, Photokina, Cologne, Germany
2014 Estreet, East Poland House in Brussels, Belgium
2014 Eastreet, KD Gallery, Nancy, France
2014 Eastreet, Lublin, Poland
2012 Private Property, TIFF Festival, Wroclaw, Poland
2012 Fashion choc moglo byc inaczej, OFFPiotrkowska, Lodz, Poland
2012 Historie Obecnosci, Fotofestiwal, PWSFTviT, Lodz, Poland
2012 Ostatni Seans, 2b+r Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2012 Port Praski, MFFM, Jaroslaw, Poland
2011 Ostatni Seans, Fotofestiwal, The Cinematography Museum, Lodz, Poland
2011 Lodz. Widoki poza pamiecia, Skwer, Warsaw, Poland
2010 Come On! Come Closer, Osrodek Propagandy Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
SELECTED SCREENINGS
2016 (upcoming) Post, Verzasca Foto Festival, Sonogno, Switzerland
2016 Post, Nuit de l’Annee, Les Rencontres d'Arles, France
2016 Post, Photonic Moments Month of Photography, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2016 Post, The Smell Of Dust III
2015 Post, Landskrona Fotofestival, Sweden
2015 Post, Photo Kathmandu Festival, Nepal
AWARDS
2016 Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Paris, France (winner)
2016 Daylight Photo Awards, USA (winner)
2016 ING Unseen Talent Award, Amsterdam, Netherlands (nominated)
2016 FotoLeggendo Giovanni Tabo Prize, Rome, Italy (winner)
2016 Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award, Best Conceptual Photo Project, Georgia (winner)
2016 Encontros da Imagem International Photography Festival, Discovery Award Under 30, Braga, Portugal (finalist)
2016 Celeste Visible White Photo Prize, Florence, Italy (finalist)
2016 Latent, Rome, Italy (shortlisted)
2016 Nera di Verzasca Award, Verzasca Foto Festival, Sonogno, Switzerland (finalist)
2016 Photonic Moments Month of Photography, Evening Projections, Ljubljana, Slovenia (winner)
2016 Young Talents of Image: Storytelling, FP Magazine, Milan, Italy (honorable mention)
2015 LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards, Amsterdam, Netherlands (winner)
2015 Lucie Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship, Los Angeles, USA (shortlisted)
2015 Vevey International Photo Award, Switzerland (shortlisted)
2015 Guernsey Photography Festival International Competition (shortlisted)
2015 Poznan Photo Diploma Award, Poland (finalist)
2015 Przetwornia Project, expert: Rafal Milach, Cracow, Poland (finalist)
2012 International Photography Awards, Los Angeles, USA (honorable mentions x3)
2012 TIFF Festival, Debuts Section, Wroclaw, Poland (winner)
2012 MFFM Festival, Jaroslaw, Poland (winner)
2010 International Photography Awards, Los Angeles, USA (honorable mention)
2010 Portait Empik Photo, Poland (special award)
2010 Grand Press Photo, Warsaw, Poland (finalist)
GRANTS
2016 Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant, Tokyo, Japan
2015 Polish Culture Around the World, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland
BOOKS
2016 Post, Actes Sud, Arles, France
2012 Private Property, Instytut Kultury Wizualnej, Warsaw, Poland (collective book)
PUBLICATIONS
GUP Magazine, LensCulture, L'Oeil de la Photographie, Fotografia Magazine, Paper Journal,
Blow Magazine, Musee Magazine, Der Greif, dienacht, Aint-Bad Magazine, iGNANT, Thisispaper,
SMBHmag, F-Stop Magazine, Unless you will,
Eastreet (collective book)
adapting to with difficulty – slipped through my fingers. This misfortune brought about another:
surgeries, months of physical limitations, a breakup, and the return and aggravation of anxiety
neurosis.
Not long before the accident, I had found in my family home a teacher's descriptive feedback from
the time I was a seven-year-old, exemplary student. I am still one in my adult life. However, despite
the opinion of others, my limitations, shame and anxiety are still teeming inside me. I started taking
the first photographs as a way of incantation of fear in an aesthetic image. The accident brought
my work to a halt. My mind was filling up with fragmentary memories, and sharp, detached details.
My own physicality and pain became a source of images that felt more and more substantial
and bodily as time passed.
"Post" is a project about trauma, frozen in dead greyness, silence and tension. Everyone can find
their own punctures here – exhausting dreams, fears, obsessions. An individual way of discovering
a twin traumatic memory in another person, “Post” is an attempt at intimate contact which closes
the past non-experience in the present.
-------
Translation (marta_zgierska_post_02.jpg)
"Descriptive evaluation of the primary school student
Class I, the first semester
Pupil Marta Zgierska is talented, conscientious and hard-working. During lessons she is very active and
focused. She has large vocabulary and knowledge. She is able to build a coherent, complex statement,
correct in terms of material and grammar. She reads fluently and expressively. She writes esthetically and
accurately in terms of language and spelling.
She is fluent in mental arithmetic. She solves simple and more complex text exercises. She can apply
practically knowledge she acquires. She is interested in phenomena occurring in nature, she knows their
causes and effects.
She shows extensive interests and talents. She has good manners. She is friendly and liked by other
children.
The Teachers' Board, 19th January, 1995
Małgorzata Smalec"
About author:
Marta Zgierska was born 1987, in Lublin, Poland. She holds MFA in Photography (The Leon Schiller National Film, Television and Theatre School), MA in Theatrology and MA in Journalism (Marie Curie-Sklodowska University). She is a visual artist working at the intersection of art and science. She is interested in trauma studies, liminal experience and a process of withdrawal. She often set themselves up as her subject, deepening the intimate aspect of personal photography. Her work was exhibited at Esther Woerdehoff Gallery (Paris, France), Maison de la Photographie (Lille, France), Musee de la Photographie Andre Villers (Mougins, France), Festival Circulation(s) (Paris, France), Athens Photo Festival (Greece), Malmo Fotobiennal (Sweden). In 2015 she was named one of Lens Culture's Top 50 Emerging Talents. In 2016 she won one of the most prestigious photography awards - Prix HSBC pour la Photographie and also Daylight Photo Awards, Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant, FotoLeggendo Giovanni Tabo Prize and Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award. In the same year she was nominated for the ING Unseen Talent Award. Her project "Post" has been published as a book by Actes Sud in 2016.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
2017 Post, Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland
2017 Post, Filter Space Gallery, Chicago, USA
2017 Post, Reminders Photography Stronghold Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Arret sur l'Image Galerie, Bordeaux, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, L'Arsenal, Metz, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Gowen Comtemporary Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland
2016 Post, Encontros da Imagem International Photography Festival, Braga, Portugal
2016 Post, Bitume Photofest, Lecce, Italy
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Galerie Esther Woerdehoff, Paris, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Musee de la Photographie Andre Villers, Mougins, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Galerie Sintitulo, Mougins, France
2016 Post, Athens Photo Festival, Greece
2016 Post, FotoLeggendo Festival, Rome, Italy
2016 Post, Festival Circulation(s), Paris, France
2015 Post, Malmo Fotobiennal, Sweden
2015 Post, Pa-ta-ta Festival, Granada, Spain
2012 TIFF Festival Debuts Section, Wroclaw, Poland
2012 Oskoma, FF/ Imaginarium, Gallery, Lodz, Poland
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016 Celeste Visible White Photo Prize, Fondazione Studio Marangoni Gallery, Florence, Italy
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, PAD Paris, France
2016 Post, Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Parcours Saint‐Germain, Paris, France
2016 Salon of New Photography, Raster Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2015 LensCulture Emerging Talents, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, USA
2015 Post, Poznan Photo Diploma Award, Maison de la Photographie, Lille, France
2015 Post, Poznan Photo Diploma Award, Biennale of Photography in Poznan, Poland
2015 Post, DongGang International Photo Festival, South Korea
2015 Post, Rencontres de Ghar el Melh, Tunisa
2014 Future Condition, Photokina, Cologne, Germany
2014 Estreet, East Poland House in Brussels, Belgium
2014 Eastreet, KD Gallery, Nancy, France
2014 Eastreet, Lublin, Poland
2012 Private Property, TIFF Festival, Wroclaw, Poland
2012 Fashion choc moglo byc inaczej, OFFPiotrkowska, Lodz, Poland
2012 Historie Obecnosci, Fotofestiwal, PWSFTviT, Lodz, Poland
2012 Ostatni Seans, 2b+r Gallery, Warsaw, Poland
2012 Port Praski, MFFM, Jaroslaw, Poland
2011 Ostatni Seans, Fotofestiwal, The Cinematography Museum, Lodz, Poland
2011 Lodz. Widoki poza pamiecia, Skwer, Warsaw, Poland
2010 Come On! Come Closer, Osrodek Propagandy Sztuki, Lodz, Poland
SELECTED SCREENINGS
2016 (upcoming) Post, Verzasca Foto Festival, Sonogno, Switzerland
2016 Post, Nuit de l’Annee, Les Rencontres d'Arles, France
2016 Post, Photonic Moments Month of Photography, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2016 Post, The Smell Of Dust III
2015 Post, Landskrona Fotofestival, Sweden
2015 Post, Photo Kathmandu Festival, Nepal
AWARDS
2016 Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, Paris, France (winner)
2016 Daylight Photo Awards, USA (winner)
2016 ING Unseen Talent Award, Amsterdam, Netherlands (nominated)
2016 FotoLeggendo Giovanni Tabo Prize, Rome, Italy (winner)
2016 Kolga Tbilisi Photo Award, Best Conceptual Photo Project, Georgia (winner)
2016 Encontros da Imagem International Photography Festival, Discovery Award Under 30, Braga, Portugal (finalist)
2016 Celeste Visible White Photo Prize, Florence, Italy (finalist)
2016 Latent, Rome, Italy (shortlisted)
2016 Nera di Verzasca Award, Verzasca Foto Festival, Sonogno, Switzerland (finalist)
2016 Photonic Moments Month of Photography, Evening Projections, Ljubljana, Slovenia (winner)
2016 Young Talents of Image: Storytelling, FP Magazine, Milan, Italy (honorable mention)
2015 LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards, Amsterdam, Netherlands (winner)
2015 Lucie Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship, Los Angeles, USA (shortlisted)
2015 Vevey International Photo Award, Switzerland (shortlisted)
2015 Guernsey Photography Festival International Competition (shortlisted)
2015 Poznan Photo Diploma Award, Poland (finalist)
2015 Przetwornia Project, expert: Rafal Milach, Cracow, Poland (finalist)
2012 International Photography Awards, Los Angeles, USA (honorable mentions x3)
2012 TIFF Festival, Debuts Section, Wroclaw, Poland (winner)
2012 MFFM Festival, Jaroslaw, Poland (winner)
2010 International Photography Awards, Los Angeles, USA (honorable mention)
2010 Portait Empik Photo, Poland (special award)
2010 Grand Press Photo, Warsaw, Poland (finalist)
GRANTS
2016 Reminders Photography Stronghold Grant, Tokyo, Japan
2015 Polish Culture Around the World, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw, Poland
BOOKS
2016 Post, Actes Sud, Arles, France
2012 Private Property, Instytut Kultury Wizualnej, Warsaw, Poland (collective book)
PUBLICATIONS
GUP Magazine, LensCulture, L'Oeil de la Photographie, Fotografia Magazine, Paper Journal,
Blow Magazine, Musee Magazine, Der Greif, dienacht, Aint-Bad Magazine, iGNANT, Thisispaper,
SMBHmag, F-Stop Magazine, Unless you will,
Eastreet (collective book)