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Stefan Szczygieł. His photographic and film work

Documentary photos for the Urban Panorama installation in the “Centrum” underground railway station in Warsaw in front of the Palace of Culture and Science. Urban Panorama I, 2007/2008, 5oo x 18oo cm.

Mediathek Sorted

Media library
  • Stefan Szczygieł - In Hamburg. Photo: Hinrich Franck
  • “Coin” (5 cents) - From the series “Blow Ups”, 2001-2005, photogram, 200 x 200 cm.
  • “Silver tin” - From the series “Blow Ups”, 2001-2005, photogram, 200 x 260 cm.
  • “Leaf” (Brooch) - From the series “Blow Ups”, 2001-2005, photogram, 350 x 200 cm.
  • “Book”  - Collection of legal regulations, from the series “Blow Ups”, photogram, 230 x 200 cm.
  • "Latarka-Elekrodyn" - From the series “Blow Ups”, photogram, 250 x 200 cm.
  • “Feuerzeug” [Cigarette lighter] - From the series “Blow Ups”, photogram, 200 x 300 cm.
  • “Guzik” - From the series “Blow Ups”, photogram, 200 x 200 cm.
  • “Telefon” [Telephone] - From the series “Blow Ups”, photogram, 200 x 260 cm
  • “Taschenuhr” [Pocket watch] - From the series “Blow Ups”, photogram, 250 x 200 cm.
  • “Zorki” - From the series “Blow Ups”, photogram, 200  x 300 cm.
  • “Warsaw, Bridge” [Warschau, Brücke] - From the series “Urban Spaces”, 2005-2009, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 170 cm (Edition: 10).
  • “Warsaw, Hala Mirowska” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 170 cm (Edition: 10).
  • “Warsaw, Zlote Tarasy” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 80 x 170 cm (Edition: 10).
  • “Warsaw, cloister wall” - In Powiśle. From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 144 cm (Edition: 10).
  • “Warsaw, stadium” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 200 cm.
  • “Warsaw, roof” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 110 x 100 cm.
  • “Warsaw, Saski Park” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 170 cm (Edition: 10).
  • “Warsaw, Ursynòw” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 108 x 60 cm (Edition: 10).
  • “Warsaw, Saski Park” 2 - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 170 cm (Edition: 10).
  • “Warsaw, Łazienkowska” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 170 cm.
  • “Warsaw, Przystanek tramwajowy” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 100 x 240 cm.
  • “Cologne, Hohenzollern bridge” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 85 x 240 cm.
  • “Cologne, Central Station” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 100 x 230 cm.
  • “Cologne, Ludwig Museum” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 150 x 240 cm.
  • “Paris, Notre Dame” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 95 x 240 cm.
  • “Paris, Louvre” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 95 x 240 cm.
  • “Paris, Bank of the Seine” - From the series “Urban Spaces”, Inkjet photo print, 80 x 240 cm.
  • Warschau, Urban Panorama I - Installation ‘Urban Panorama’, underground station ‘Centrum’ in Warsaw in front of the Palace of Culture and Science. 2007/2008, 500 x 1800 cm
  • Warschau, Urban Panorama II - Side view.
  • “Domek 08” - From the series “Domek”, 2007-2009, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 90 cm (Edition: 5+3 artist’s prints)
  • “Domek 09” - From the series “Domek”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 90 cm
  • “Domek 10” - From the series “Domek”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 90 cm
  • “Domek 23” - From the series “Domek”, Inkjet photo print, 60 x 90 cm
  • ZEITFLUG - Hamburg - From ‘Urban Spaces’, video: 12:00 min. Stefan Szczygieł. Courtesy: Claus Friede*Contemporary Art

    ZEITFLUG - Hamburg

    From ‘Urban Spaces’, video: 12:00 min. Stefan Szczygieł. Courtesy: Claus Friede*Contemporary Art
  • ZEITFLUG - Warsaw - From ‘Urban Spaces’, video: 13:19 min. Stefan Szczygieł. Courtesy: Claus Friede*Contemporary Art

    ZEITFLUG - Warsaw

    From ‘Urban Spaces’, video: 13:19 min. Stefan Szczygieł. Courtesy: Claus Friede*Contemporary Art
Warschau_Urban-Panorama_01
Documentary photos for the Urban Panorama installation in the “Centrum” underground railway station in Warsaw in front of the Palace of Culture and Science. Urban Panorama I, 2007/2008, 5oo x 18oo cm.

When a period of liberalisation began to make itself felt in Poland Stefan Szczygieł seized the opportunity to apply for a passport and a permit to leave the country. He did not reveal that he aimed to study for some time in Germany. On the one hand he wanted to pursue his passion for photography, and on the other hand make a career by pursuing his independent artistic visions. At the time the experimental character of the Düsseldorf Academy of Art made it a major training centre in new media and photography. The class led by Bernd Becher (1931-2007) was extremely popular with students who wanted to dedicate themselves to artistic and documentary photography. The composer and artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006) was the father figure and founder of media art and one of the most important artistic personalities in the Academy.

Both these components, the clear documentary rigour in Becher’s class and the free artistic attitudes encouraged by Nam June Paik run through Stefan Szczygieł’s later work like a thin red line. Here there is one common factor uniting both the teachers and their student: the extremely high precision in their formal techniques and themes and their faithfulness to themselves.

After a period of professional consolidation in the 1990s – Szczygieł was primarily working as a photographer or for commercial agencies and earned enough money to be able to dedicate himself to his own independent projects at the same time, albeit with a certain time lapse – around the turn of the century he was finally in a position to devote himself to artistic photography.

 

Blow Ups
 

Thus Szczygieł began work on a series of photographs that he entitled Blow Ups or High Resolution Objects, and which he pursued continually for the next five years.

He photographed objects like clocks, telephones, jewellery, cigarette boxes, lighters, books, cameras, coins and buttons – some of them were from the past – in a precise and extremely magnified manner in front of or on top of a neutral background. The proofs were huge, measuring 200 x 200 cm and even up to 200 x 400 cm, up to 200 times larger than the original objects. The huge format and the neutral light grey background in the close ups gave the objects a unique hyper real effect as if they were floating freely in thin air, independent of any laws of gravity. In addition Szczygieł emphasised macroscopic details like scratches, colourings, signs of age, rust, tiny dents and tracings, not to speak of the material density that was fed by an image resolution of up to 350,000,000 pixels.