Katarzyna Mazur (1987) has a Bachelor's degree in German philology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, she later graduated from Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin. Her photographs are kept in the convention of photojournalism.
Porcelain Chic, one of her first sets of photographs, talks about the youth which is equally beautiful and brutal. A reportage from combat sports trainings for teenagers served as a pretext for such consideration. 'No one loves like I do' is a warm story about distant relatives living in Bieszczady Mountains. The artist describes a place which resists modernity. The photographs are accompanied by annotations in which Mazur underlines the role of state in the process visualized in the photographs. She talks about Polish emigrants fleeing to Italy and the lack of opportunities for those who have decided to stay in Poland. Teaserettes and Teasers is an outcome of artist's interest in spontaneity and humour that accompanies contemporary burlesque.
Anna Konda
The most recognizable of artist's projects designed hitherto was created upon the completion of her studies in Berlin. The project describes the story of Fight Club for women created in 2010 and run by two sportswomen known under the nicknames Anna Konda and Red Devil. The artist consciously refers to Berlin of the 1920s when women's wrestling was very popular. Right now the fights take place in a club on the fringe of Berlin in Marzahn, an eastern quarter of Berlin. The place is open for women at all ages, there are no weight or boxing style divisions. In her project, Mazur juxtaposes social perception of women with the reality found in the club, paying special attention to people's attitude towards the body.
In 2015, a book with the photographic cycle was released by Dienacht Publishing. The publication was nominated to The Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation Photo Book Awards in The First Photo Book category and spotted by the Photo-eye magazine and The Calvert Journal.
Since 2014, Mazur has been collaborating with the documentary photography platform WorkshopX. Her photographs were published in such magazines as Stern, Süddeutsche Zeitung, GUP, Der Greif, Feature Shoot and Dazed & Confused Magazine. She took part in exhibitions in France, Germany, India and Poland. Katarzyna Mazur works as a freelancer, apart from photography, she is interested in film.
www.katarzynamazur.com
Author: Michał Dąbrowski, December 2016, translated by AW, December 2016