Paris Photo
2021
For its first participation at Paris Photo, the gallery will exhibit (booth A9) the work of Tomasz Machciński.
Tomasz Machciński, a Polish mechanic born in 1942, produced some 22,000 photographic self-portraits over a period of almost half a century. When this war orphan was given, as a child, an ambiguous autograph by American actress Joan Tompkins, he imagined for twenty years that she was his mother. When reality caught up with him, the young Machcinski embarked on a frantic quest for identity, from 1966 – a decade before Cindy Sherman.
Discovered not long ago, his iconic works have been exhibited since 2019 at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles festival, in the “Photo brut” section, and are now part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and the Museum of Photography in Krakow (Poland). All the prints presented are unique.
Paris Photo will also organize a panel discussion on brut photography with Marc Donnadieu, Bruno Decharme, Corinne Rondeau and Christian Berst on Saturday, November 13 from 2 to 3 pm.
More information about the event : click here.
Tomasz Machciński (1942–2022), a war orphan and Polish laborer, dedicated 50 years of his life to creating over 22,000 photographic self-portraits. Ten years before Cindy Sherman, Machciński embarked on an intense quest for identity. Recently discovered, this monumental work has been acclaimed at the Rencontres d’Arles, Paris Photo, the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, and the Independent Art Fair in New York.
- According to the artist’s wishes and in agreement with the Machciński Foundation, only 2,500 photographs from the estate will eventually be available for sale.
