KACPER KOWALSKI
Kacper Kowalski (b. 1977, Poland) has been observing and photographing landscapes from aerial perspective for over 25 years. After becoming an architect and having worked in the profession for four years, he eventually decided to commit to flying and photography - his true passions. As a paraglider, a pilot of small aircrafts and a gyrocopter, Kacper would fly into the air with an engine strapped to his back to discover the world of forms, shapes, and patterns during lonely flights. Altogether he spent over 5000 hours in the air. Constantly fighting with the natural forces: wind and air currents, when he photographs from 150m above the ground level, he finds himself in an almost meditative state, when the nature and surroundings reveal not only abstract forms to him, but also seem to communicate with him with the language of symbols that appear on his photographs. The flight is for Kowalski not only a way to capture the world beneath, but becomes a spiritual journey that reveals universal truths about the relationship between man and nature, about the past and the present, and about one’s own personal truth and the way to get there.
He has received numerous awards, including the World Press Photo award (three times), the Picture of the Year International POYi award (six times), and dozens of others. His first book, Side Effects, was published in 2014, OVER was self-published in 2017, followed by Arché in 2021. His works have been exhibited several hundred times in group and solo exhibitions all over the world, and the books have won and have been nominated to the most prestigious prizes, including Les Prix du Livre at Rencontres d’Arles.
He is represented by Panos Pictures, REZO Agency, and galleries: Bildhalle in Amsterdam and Zurich, and Atlas Gallery in London.
Artist statement:
„I was a teenager when I got my pilot’s license. Much has changed over the twenty-five years since then. Film photography has been replaced by the digital matrix, and people in the air have been displaced by drones. Today, the whole world is photographed and accessible on the phone. Every last scrap of the map has been analyzed and reproduced in a thousand different
ways.
I am still drawn to the air, maybe because, in this way, I fulfill the eternal human dream of being able to fly. Or maybe I am afraid that drones will soon take over altogether and human aviation will become a thing of the past. I continue to wander the skies, concentrating more on what I feel when I see than on what I see and know about the world. I search for impressions that will remain in my imagination after I’ve stopped looking. It is my ritual: I enter a state of meditation or mindfulness and then I take pictures.
I am an architect by training; my profession has shaped my way of seeing. I analyze the contents of a landscape and present the results in the form of abstract, harmonious images. Sometimes they resemble drafts containing complex information; other times they look like maps with traces of human activity imprinted on the structure of the Earth. More and more, they present a world that is abstract and detached from reality, but nonetheless true. I express the emotions, impressions and reflections that come to me during my solitary flights.”
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SELECTION OF EXHIBITIONS
2022
• Event Horizon | Sopot | State Art Gallery | September-October
• OCEAN | Bildhalle | Amsterdam | The Netherlands, June-September
• Side Effects | PHOTO BASEL | ARTE Giani Basel, Switzerland | June
• UNIQUE | ATLAS GALLERY | London, England | May
2019
• OVER | Haute Photographie | ATLAS GALLERY | Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam |
2018
• Side Effects & OVER | Galerie XII | Los Angeles | USA
• OVER | Paris Photo | ATLAS GALLERY | Paris, France
• Hare and Hounds | W Ramach Sopotu Festival | PGS - National Gallery of ART | Sopot, Poland |
• High: Photography from above | ATLAS GALLERY | London, England |
2017
• OVER | Anzenberger Gallery | Vienna, Austria |
• OVER & Side Effects | Photo12 Gallery | Paris, France |
• OVER | Landskrona Fotofestival | Landskrona, Sweden
• Side Effects | International Bienniale of Photography | Bogota, Colombia |
• Artist of the Year | The Curator Gallery | New York City, USA |
2016
• Artist of the Year | The Curator Gallery | New York City, USA |
• Fade to White | The Curator Gallery | New York City, USA |
2015
• Above and Beyond | The Curator Gallery | New York City, USA |
• Side Effects | Leica Gallerie Salzburg | Austria |
• Side Effects | The Lumiere Brothers Center for Photography | Moscow, Russia |
• Side Effects | Muzeum of Gdynia | Gdynia, Poland |
• over 80 World Press Photo exhibitions arround the World |
2014
• Side Effects | Leica Gallery Warsaw | Warsaw, Poland |
• Side Effects | Photoville Festival | New York City, USA |
• over 80 World Press Photo exhibitions arround the World |
2013
• Materia Prima | Munnkerupkus House | Copenhagen, Danemark |
2012
• Nebenwirkungen | Polish Institute | Dusseldorf, Germany |
2011
• Flood From the Sky | Leica Gallery | Warsaw, Poland |
• Flood From the Sky | constance exhibition in Snadomierz, Poland |
2009
• over 80 World Press Photo exhibitions around the World |
SELECTION OF AWARDS & HONOURABLE MENTIONS
2022
• Prix du Livre 2022 des Rencontres d‘Arles | shortlisted: Photobook Arché |
• IPA-International Photography Awards | 3rd prize: Photobook Arché | nature |
• Pictures Of the Year International (79 POYi) | Event Horizon, finalist |
• GRAND PRESS PHOTO 2022 | Nomination to the book of the year: Arché
2019
• Pictures Of the Year International (76 POYi) | Photography Book of the Year, finalist ‚OVER‘ |
• Pictures Of the Year International (76 POYi) | Award of Excellence, ‚Enviromental Policy‘ |
2018
• Independent Pubisher Book Awards | GOLD MEDAL: photobook OVER | EUROPE, NON-FICTION |
• FOLA® PHOTOBOOK AWARD | Shortlisted: photobook OVER |
2016
• Pictures Of the Year International (73 POYi) | award of excellence ‚Side Effects‘ |
2015
• World Press Photo 2015 | 2nd prize, long term project ‚Side Effects‘|
• Pictures Of the Year International (72 POYi) | finalist, photobook ‚Side Effects‘ |
2014
• World Press Photo 2014 | 2nd prize, story ‚Toxic Beauty‘ | nature |
• Pictures Of the Year International (71 POYi) | 3nd prize, story ‚the Depth of Winter‘ | nature |
• Sony World Photography Awards | 2nd prize, story ‚the Depth of Winter‘ | landscape |
2013
• Pictures Of the Year International (69 POYi) | 3nd prize, story, Toxic Beauty | nature |
2011
• Leica Oskar Barnack Award | shortlisted ‚Flood from the sky – Sandomierz 2010‘ story |
2009
• World Press Photo | 2nd prize story | Arts and Entertainment |
• Nikon Photo Contest International | 75TH NIKKOR ANNIVERSARY AWARD | single |
• International Photography Awards IPA | Nature Photographer of the Year |
2008
• Pilsner Urquell International Photography Awards IPA | 9 x honourable mention |
