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Monika Czosnowska

Larissa, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm, print run 5 + 2 a.p.
©
© Monika Czosnowska

The photographer, Monika Czosnowska, was born in 1977 in Szczecin/Stettin and went to school in Germany. Following this she studied at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. As a rule she takes her photographic portraits of children in Poland: they include young people and young adults whom she selects in school classes, children's choirs, scout and guide groups and monasteries. These are stringently staged and embody an idealised image of humanity, untouched, innocent, pure and with an inner beauty. The photographer links these features with her childhood experiences in Poland. Monika Czosnowska's work has been shown in exhibitions all over the world.

Mediathek Sorted

Media library
  • Ill. 1: Monika, 2001 - Monika, 2001. C-Print, 79 x 68 cm
  • Ill. 2: Klaus, 2002 - Klaus, 2002. C-Print, 79 x 68 cm
  • Ill. 3: Lisa, 2003 - Lisa, 2003. C-Print, 79 x 68 cm
  • Ill. 4: Helena, 2004 - Helena, 2004. C-Print, 74 x 62 cm
  • Ill. 5: Katrin, 2005 - Katrin, 2005. C-Print, 79 x 68 cm
  • Ill. 6: Alexander, 2005 - Alexander, 2005. C-Print, 79 x 68 cm
  • Ill. 7: Kristian, 2006 - Kristian, 2006. C-Print, 74 x 62 cm
  • Ill. 8: Clara, 2007 - Clara, 2007. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 9: Larissa, 2004 - Larissa, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 10: Rebekka, 2004 - Rebekka, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 11: Adrian, 2004 - Adrian, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 12: Daniel, 2004 - Daniel, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 13: Johanna, 2004 - Johanna, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 14: Benedikt, 2004 - Benedikt, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 15; Agnes, 2004 - Agnes, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 16: Justus, 2004 - Justus, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 17: Tibor, 2004 - Tibor, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm
  • Ill. 18: August, 2008 - August, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 19: Damian, 2008 - Damian, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 20: Gabriel, 2008 - Gabriel, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 21: Hanna, 2008 - Hanna, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 22: Jan, 2008 - Jan, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 23: Jonas, 2008 - Jonas, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 24: Marta, 2008 - Marta, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 25: Maximilian, 2008 - Maximilian, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 26: Melanie, 2008 - Melanie, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 27: Oliwia, 2008 - Oliwia, from the Pupils series, 2008. C-Print, 52 x 43 cm
  • Ill. 28: Benjamin, 2013 - Benjamin, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 29: Tabea, 2013 - Tabea, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 30: Antoni, 2013 - Antoni, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 31: Fabian, 2013 - Fabian, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 32: Georg, 2013 - Georg, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 33: Sascha, 2013 - Sascha, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 34: Moritz, 2013 - Moritz, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 35: Patricia, 2013 - Patricia, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 36: Miriam, 2013 - Miriam, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 37: Kamil, 2013 - Kamil, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 38: Leander, 2013 - Leander, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45 x 33 cm
  • Ill. 39: Kim, 2013 - Kim, from the Scouts and Guides series, 2013. C-Print, 45x33 cm
  • Ill. 40: Yasmin, 2017 - Yasmin, from the Elites series 2017. C-Print, 59 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 41: Tom, 2017 - Tom, from the Elites series, 2017. C-Print, 59 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 42: Linus, 2017 - Linus, from the Elites series, 2017. C-Print, 59 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 43: Sophie, 2017 - Sophie, from the Elites series, 2017. C-Print, 59 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 44: Paul, 2017 - Paul, from the Elites series, 2017. C-Print, 59 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 45: Lea, 2017 - Lea, from the Elites series, 2017. C-Print, 59 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 46: Erik, 2017 - Erik, from the Elites series, 2017. C-Print, 59 x 48 cm
  • Ill. 47: Maja, 2017 - Maja, from the Elites series, 2017. C-Print, 59 x 48 cm
  • Portrait of Monika Czosnowska - Portrait of Monika Czosnowska

Monika Czosnowska
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Larissa, from the Novices series, 2004.
Larissa, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm, print run 5 + 2 a.p.
©
© Monika Czosnowska

Czosnowska's works claim a special position in contemporary photography. If we browse through the relevant literature,[20] we rarely come upon picture series of children and young people. Since the end of the 1980s a Dutch woman by the name of Rineke Dijkstra (*1959) has been looking for models with no artificial poses and possessing a natural aura. She found them in the form of children in bathing costumes on the beach and photographed them for a decade. The U.S. artist, Sally Mann (*1951) made a name for herself with pictures of children in idyllic staged dreamlike family settings. During the transition years between Socialism and capitalism the Russian/Ukrainian photographer, Sergey Bratkov (*1960), documented homeless young people engaged in petty crime alongside other people at the edge of society. In contemporary artistic photography it is almost impossible to find any images of people (over and above documentary images), like those taken by Czosnowska, which as she herself admits “have gone a little out of fashion”. Even when we seek advice on “beauty” in contemporary art,[21] we find many different categories, primarily on the absence of beauty and the resistance to what is deemed beautiful. Nonetheless there are scarcely any attempts like those made by Czosnowska, to stage inner beauty as the essential feature of humanity in general.

 

Axel Feuß. October 2017

 

 

Further reading:

Eleven. Monika Czosnowska, published by the Kunststiftung der ZF Friedrichshafen AG, Exhibition catalogue Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, 2008

Die beste aller Welten, published by Thomas Niemeyer, exhibition catalogue Städtische Galerie Nordhorn, 2014

The artist's homepage: www.monika-czosnowska.de containing lists of her solo and group exhibitions.

 

[20] A forum featuring examples of pictures, brief biographies, texts and lists of exhibitions is offered on the homepage of the periodical photography now, that documents 23,020 contemporary photographers in the menu “Contemporary Photography”: http://www.photography-now.com/artist/?nationality=

[21] Schönheit I / II, herausgegeben von Martin Seidel und Jürgen Raap, in: Kunstforum international, volume 191, May-July 2008, and volume 192, July-August 2008

Larissa, from the Novices series, 2004. C-Print, 79 x 66 cm, print run 5 + 2 a.p.
©
© Monika Czosnowska
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