Tomasz Gudzowaty "Proof"

This time the artist invites you to the archive and reveals the backstage of his workshop, risking the confrontation of the audience with "dirty" photography, or actually a by-product and transitional product, of the proper Polaroid Type 55 process, at the end of which there is a perfect photo. It is about instant positive prints, irradiated simultaneously with negative and directly used on the set for quick shot control. Usually, a moment later they become "production waste", to be thrown away, or - at best - to be used as a label on boxes with exposed films. The word proof means just such a proof print, but also proof - a material trace of the event. Unlike archival silver prints, this is evidence that is very impermanent. Contours and spots blur, change color and fade. The only way to keep images is to transfer them to another medium. However .... Why would anyone go to such trouble? The answer is simple: these prints can be viewed as artifacts with their own aesthetic value. Tomasz Gudzowaty, together with his publisher and curator, Gerhard Steidel, used a collection of preserved proofs to create the exhibition and the accompanying album. The reference becomes an object, a work of art, which raises reflection on the destructive action of time and photography, which is a fight against time. The exhibition is curated by Piotr Piotrowski. The exhibition exhibition was prepared in cooperation with the Zegart Agency.

Tomasz Gudzowaty (born in 1971, Warsaw) is a documentalist and portraitist, known for his achievements in the field of nature, sport and social photography. His work has been published in numerous magazines and newspapers, such as The Guardian, National Geographic, British Journal of Photography, L’Equipe and Vogue Italia. In 2016, Gudzowaty published the books Beyond the Body and Closer in the Steidl publishing house. He exhibited, among others in: Museum of Photography in Bydgoszcz (2014), Olympic Museum in Lausanne (2014), Kontrast Gallery in Stockholm, (2011), during the festival Les Rencontres d 'Arles in France (2009); at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon (2007), La Maison de la Photographie Nord-Pas-de-Calais in Lille (2006) and at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York (2005). He has won many awards, including World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year International and Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, awarded by the National Portrait Gallery in London. He lives and works in Warsaw.