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VASA Front Page Exhibition #61
VASA Front Page Exhibitions presents the work of emerging and established photographers, video or sound artists.
Joanna Mrowka
"How life is, as life is"
© Joanna Mrowka
Curator: Stefania Zorzi
Artist Statement:
Life and photography goes together, for me. I try to enjoy both.
These are singles images from Morocco, India, Italy, Ukraine, China, Cyprus and Poland. Full of colour, light, people, life – that's everything what I like in photography.
Curator note:
The individual photographs presented in this exhibition form a unitary body that reveals the guiding thread of the Joanna Mrówka's vision. We immediately recognize the particular choice of light and shadows, the color contrasts, the readiness and sensitivity of the photographer in capturing the gazes of the people she met on her travels. But Joanna's photographs show us much more. If the photograph brings the three-dimensional back to a two-dimensional plane, on one layer, we actually discover that there are multiple levels within it. Joanna Mrówka captures multiple dimensions in reality and frames them creating a single image that relates to the different elements that compose it. We can see the structures that create separations in several situations, which are visualized at the same time. Frames, lines, walls, doors, windows invite the viewer into other world, other emotions, other ages.
We can also see this mode in her choice of lights and shadows, in the contrasts between the colors and the gaze by the people portrayed, embedding situations in other situations. Through the position of the bodies and the poses of the people photographed Joanna Mrówka captures different associations and relationships between the various characters portrayed.
In other photographs the intensity of the gaze seem to break the line of separation between the subject and the viewer, and the contrasts of positions move us to other levels of observation. The photographs seem to move between boundaries, sometimes clear and sometimes fleeting. How life is, as life is.
Joanna's photographs allow us to recognize that these emotional contrasts, the separating lines, light and darkness, are part of a complex reality that only at first glance appears to separate them from their surroundings. The photographs also produce an estrangement by revealing new and unusual aspects, reflecting on our perception and nature of reality. By immersing us in the essence of life, spaces and relationships Joanna moves the viewer to a sense of unity.
© Stefania Zorzi
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About the artist
Joanna Mrowka was born and lives in Cracow. She works as a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics in Cracow University of Economics. She has participated in many group exhibitions, national and international competitions and has presented several solo exhibitions. She is a prize winner in the National Geographic Competition Poland in category "People" in 2015, 2016, 2017 Grand Press Photo 2016, 2019 and BZ WBK Press Foto 2016 (Picture of the Year), 2017, 9. Leica Street Photo. She's a winner of second prize in Lens Culture Street Award 2015 in series.
Joanna Mrowka is a member of Polish Women Photography
© Joann Mrowka