He graduated in cultural studies from Adam Mickiewicz University (1992 – 1997). Since 2001, he has collaborated closely with Newsweek. He had previously worked for the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. Since 2010, he has taught at Warsaw University’s Institute of Journalism. He is the founder and member (since 2008) of the Napo Images photographic agency. He created and headed the photography section for the journal Polska The Times. He is the originator of and a juror for the photographic competition Newsreportaż.
Although Filip Ćwik operates first and foremost in the field of press photography, another of his projects, dedicated to the floods that hit Poland in 2010, was featured at the Inside/Outside exhibition in Warsaw’s Apteka Sztuki gallery in 2011. These documentary shots illustrated the damage done to buildings, homes and the landscape by the flood.
To begin with, we see something that is pretty – says the artist, explaining the effect achieved by his photographs – and only after analysing the image do we really understand why it looks the way it does. This is, after all, flood material, and it was really only when the water drained away that I realized that the most shocking images are those showing the interiors of people’s houses.
His departure from standard press reports towards documentary images that can be exhibited in galleries is a sign of the times.
Press photography is enjoying ever greater popularity – Ćwik observed – but this doesn’t necessarily translate into publication in the press. We are seeing fewer and fewer images in newspapers and those that do see the light of day are less and less interesting.
In 2012, Ćwik realized the 12 Faces project – he set up a makeshift portrait studio next to a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey, in which he photographed victims of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. He published the series in a photo book, with the pictures accompanied by collected memories of the photographed individuals.
