Owen Pritchard speaks to the photographer in 2021 about the thoughts, ideas and actions behind the publication.
Rafał Milach
"A key focal point of my current artistic practice is the clash between non-heroic gestures and ostensibly neutral spaces, which are in fact set against a political background of current events. The oppressive nature of the areas I investigate is reflected in architecture, objects, and suitably formatted social structures."
- Rafał Milach
Rafał Milach was born in 1978 in Poland, and grew up during the collapse of the Soviet bloc. He studied graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, before “falling in love” with photography the first time he picked up a camera. He joined Magnum Photos as a nominee in 2018, became an associate member in 2020, and was voted in as a full member in 2023. He is currently a professor at the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School in Katowice.
Milach’s work explores themes of history and transformation, particularly within the former Soviet bloc, using a myriad of mediums such as photography, conceptual art, books, video and curation. Though he initially tackled subjects through a traditional documentary perspective, his later projects draw on a more conceptual approach.
His works have been widely exhibited in Poland and worldwide, and can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, the ING Polish Art Foundation, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Japan, and Brandts in Odense, Denmark.
