Andrej Balco, Jan Brykczyński, Manca Juvan, Andrei Liankevich, Michał Łuczak, Justyna Mielnikiewicz, Rafał Milach, Adam Pańczuk, Agnieszka Rayss, Filip Singer
www.sputnikphotos.com, www.icelandictales.sputnikphotos.com,
www.sputnikinbelarus.blogspot.com, www.4×3.sputnikphotos.com
Sputnik Photos is a multinational collective established by photojournalists from Central and Eastern Europe. In our projects we investigate and portray the real life so well-known and familiar to us – in the region of Europe we come from. We closely observe the world surrounding us, and do our best to understand it.
We take a deep look, seeking what is veiled behind the facade.
We invited journalists and graphic designers to work with us to expand our horizons. And together we have worked on projects resulting in publications, books and exhibitions. We welcome and are happy to work together with those who hold dear the topics that fascinate us, who are drawn by the way we see and describe reality. In addition we assist other organisations in carrying out their projects and achieving their visions.
Photographers at Sputnik Photos have worked in several dozen countries all over the world. Their photos have been published in the likes of Time, Newsweek, Stern, Sunday Times Magazine, The New York Times, Le Monde 2 and others. And they have won awards at the most important press photography competitions, such as World Press Photo, Picture of the Year International and the Canon AFJ Female Photojournalist Award.
3 projects / 3 ways of expression / 3 countries
Icelandic multimedia / Belarusian book / Polish workshops with kids
(2010-2012)
IS (not) (2010)
5 Polish photographers, 5 Icelandic writers, 1 island
To understand another human being is to get a better understanding of oneself. On the Old Continent, the part of the Other has already been cast – it is played by a strange, small country halfway between Europe and America, inhabited by elves and EU opponents. To get to know this country, one must grapple with media clichés – those of a wealthy state, until recently, now plunged into financial crisis, or of the land of picturesque volcanoes, capable of paralyzing air traffic over half of Europe. The photographers of Sputnik Photos have decided to take on these clichés and capture the essence of Iceland, the essence of humanity.To get to know the Other, to move from ignorance to understanding, the photographers traveled from the continent to the island. Having come from the outside, they discovered the country from the inside, from the perspective of the Icelandic writers they were accompanied by as well as people they met on the island. Coming to terms with stereotypes, they sought an individual experience. Yet the more they got to know Iceland, the more they realized how little about it they actually knew. Having come for answers, they left with questions. Questions about what the island was, and about who we are.
Project resulted in exhibitions both on Iceland and in Poland, a book and multimedia. It was spontaneously followed by open discussions in remote locations as well as by concerts, DJ sets, big screen projections and story-telling for kids.
STAND BY (2010, in progress)
The group of 7 photographers of different nationalities went to Belarus to find out what is behind the ‘last dictatorship in Europe’ phrase everybody keeps repeating. Getting to know this country turned out to be difficult. As Victor Martinovich writes in his essay, in Belarus you constantly witness endless manifestations of a double system, there are two writers’ unions, from 1996 to 1999 there were even two parliaments, life is hard and at the same time everything is clean and neat in Minsk, when you come for a visit. Taking a picture wasn‘t easy but it was even more tough to say something out loud after comming back. To make a statement about Belarus. Is making a photo book political? The book is accompanied by multimedia and a blog, as well as workshops for students. Project is still in progress.
ONE, TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE (2011)
Together with kids we’ve produced a book, multimedia and a blog full of photos. It was fun.
This is the story: in July 2011, campers set out for the four furthest corners of Poland, each of them carrying two photographers and one cultural animator equipped with bags of small automatic cameras. They made three-day stops in villages and small towns, asking kids to join them for photography workshops. The kids got cameras (not to keep, unfortunately) and the fun began. It wasn’t about learning how to press the buttons, but about turning on the ‘automaton’ and learning to look at the surrounding world with curiosity, playing at turning it into still pictures. It was about not listening to grownups and not caring about what they’d consider a ‘good photo’, but about doing your own thing. (Kuba Dąbrowski)
GROHMAN’S VILLA
Tylna 9/11
opening hours
10.05 (Thu): 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
11.05–20.05 (Mon-Sun): 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
latest entrance: 7.00 p.m.
opening: 10.05, 6 p.m.
exhibition will be held: 10–20.05
