Bio:
Christopher Ślachciak, born in 1983, is an artist photographer and a Doctor in Fine Arts. He is a member of the Association of Polish Art Photographers and a scholarship recipient of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. He graduated from the Faculty of Modern Languages at Adam Mickiewicz University and completed postgraduate studies in Marketing on the Business-to-Business Market at the Poznan University of Economics, with a thesis on the audience of applied photography. He is a teaching and research staff member at the Institute of Interior and Industrial Design, Faculty of Architecture at Poznan University of Technology, where he conducts photography courses, lectures on the psychophysiology of vision, and leads the photography science club photoLAB. He also serves as the Creative Director for Photography at the Rozruch Art Gallery in Poznan and as Vice President of the Greater Poland District of the Association of Polish Art Photographers.
His creative interests focus on the specificity of the photographic image and its relationship with space and the viewer. These interests form the basis of his experiments on the border of the photographic medium and photographic objects that explore the interplay between the image, the object, and spatial contexts.
To date, he has exhibited his works in over 90 exhibitions and photographic events both in Poland and abroad, including galleries such as PAcamera, Forum Fotografii, Stara Galeria ZPAF, Galeria Pusta, Galeria Obok ZPAF, as well as festivals like the FotoArt Festival in Bielsko-Biała, the Festival of New Art “Labirynt” in Słubice and Frankfurt (Oder), the Rybnik Photography Festival, Days of Alternative Photography in Warsaw, and the "Photoperipheries" festival in Kielce.
He is the author of science papers exploring the relationship between photographic images, objects, and space, as well as the artbook titled "It’s More Likely We Are Not Special". In October 2024, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, titled "The Native Features of Photography in the Critique of Anthropocentrism".
His creative interests focus on the specificity of the photographic image and its relationship with space and the viewer. These interests form the basis of his experiments on the border of the photographic medium and photographic objects that explore the interplay between the image, the object, and spatial contexts.
To date, he has exhibited his works in over 90 exhibitions and photographic events both in Poland and abroad, including galleries such as PAcamera, Forum Fotografii, Stara Galeria ZPAF, Galeria Pusta, Galeria Obok ZPAF, as well as festivals like the FotoArt Festival in Bielsko-Biała, the Festival of New Art “Labirynt” in Słubice and Frankfurt (Oder), the Rybnik Photography Festival, Days of Alternative Photography in Warsaw, and the "Photoperipheries" festival in Kielce.
He is the author of science papers exploring the relationship between photographic images, objects, and space, as well as the artbook titled "It’s More Likely We Are Not Special". In October 2024, he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, titled "The Native Features of Photography in the Critique of Anthropocentrism".
Artist Statement:
If I had to summarize my creative activity in one sentence, I would say it is a practice exploring the border between understanding an image based on the projection of a fragment of reality and the subjective nature of the artwork in terms of both form and idea.
The ever-persistent nature of photography is the foundation for experiments testing its definitions and theoretical assumptions. The core of this practice is, in fact, the process of perception. This stems from the observation that when we understand an image as a photograph, we trust that it is an image of reality. Paradoxically, this happens even though we often realize that this is not the case. And if, as viewers, we are able to grant an image such trust, can we, as creators, use it in our own creations? Is a subjective image that retains the characteristics of photography ideologically autonomous? And if so, how is it understood by the viewer? Can we extract the features that make a particular work function as a photograph and extend them beyond the image, or even use them in other media, thus transferring the values resulting from that trust?
The ever-persistent nature of photography is the foundation for experiments testing its definitions and theoretical assumptions. The core of this practice is, in fact, the process of perception. This stems from the observation that when we understand an image as a photograph, we trust that it is an image of reality. Paradoxically, this happens even though we often realize that this is not the case. And if, as viewers, we are able to grant an image such trust, can we, as creators, use it in our own creations? Is a subjective image that retains the characteristics of photography ideologically autonomous? And if so, how is it understood by the viewer? Can we extract the features that make a particular work function as a photograph and extend them beyond the image, or even use them in other media, thus transferring the values resulting from that trust?
The photographs I present, if they can even be defined as such, along with other works related to photography, do not serve as a transfer of reality, and the process of their creation is neither cold nor purely experimental. It is also a consequence of the need to release emotions. This feeling builds up, urges, and at its peak pushes toward action. Ideas emerge, conceptual sketches are made, often later refined over months until the work is ready for presentation.
My inspirations are natural for this process. They primarily include works by artists from the subjective photography movement: Bronisław Schlabs, Zdzisław Beksiński, Jerzy Lewczyński, Zbigniew Dłubak, Otto Steinert, Minor White, but also Edward Hartwig, Krzysztof Pruszkowski, Stanisław Woś, Józef Robakowski, Wojciech Beszterdy, as well as painters: Włodzimierz Włoszkiewicz, Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock, William Turner, Édouard Manet, and Hieronymus Bosch