Ones to Watch 2019: Karolina Wojtas

Each year, British Journal of Photography presents its Ones To Watch – a selection of 19 emerging image-makers, chosen from a list of nearly 750 nominations. Collectively, they provide a window into where photography is heading, at least in the eyes of the curators, editors, agents, festival producers and photographers we invited to nominate made by our global network of experts. Every weekend throughout May, BJP-online is sharing profiles of the 19 photographers, originally published in the magazine.

“One of the most beautiful things you can have as an emerging artist is an undisturbed need for experimentation,” says Polish photographer Rafal Milach. “Karolina Wojtas’ works are hypnotising. It’s like diving into a cloud of ideas, humorous and disturbing at the same time. Karolina sculpts, manipulates, reproduces, designs and consequently documents the entire process.”

Wojtas’ Tumblr is just that: a barrage of fluorescent images popping out of a crowded desktop, banners and gifs. “I try to find an interesting form to present works from time to time,” says Wojtas. “The current look reflects the reality of how my office looks. It references what I am working on now – I would call it a sketchbook, an extraordinary mess that I don’t necessarily always control.”

Born in Jarosław, south-east Poland, Wojtas, 22, is currently completing her MA in photography at the Lodz Film School, where she admits that she doesn’t show teachers all her work, as she feels it isn’t always understood. “I think that I am a kid – and want to be as long as possible – who is playing and taking photographs. I don’t reject any ideas that come to my mind, such as constructing a huge slide or covering an exhibition space in glitter. I treat photography as fun.”

© Karolina Wojtas

At the 2017 Krakow Photomonth festival, Wojtas was one of the winners of the open call, Showoff, where she took over a corridor of a building, transforming it into a chaotic school-like arts space [left], covering the floor with pink glitter and hanging “wheels of fortune” on the wall, papier-mâchéd with images and puzzles, encouraging visitors to interact.

Wojtas’ work addresses topics of childhood, education and love, and she describes her photos as “quite ugly” and “strange”. Train to knowledge, a project attempting to illustrate the education system – “the process of forming children into citizens, and the presentation of a hidden curriculum, seemingly unnoticeable, but with fundamental importance for constancy” – is a “combination of memories, colliding with feelings of visiting these places as an adult,” she explains.

Images of empty classrooms are interspersed with ones of student activities, learning tools and visualisations of discipline and uniformity that as children we were likely not aware of. “Childhood is a time where everything is possible and magic is ubiquitous, but then you go to school and begin to follow the required pattern, and everything gets lost over time.”

The ruling rightwing political party in Poland, PiS, has introduced drastic and controversial structural stages to society in recent years, higher education being one. Teachers continue to strike, disrupting classes and end-of-year exams in protest.

“The situation is extremely urgent and gives me a lot of motives to illustrate,” says Wojtas. Her nominator, Milach, adds: “She is a keen observer who records all aberrations that the so-called ‘real world’ can o er. The scale of visual solutions seems to have no limits to Karolina. But above all she is a storyteller. The playful and contemporary form is just a container for the problems Karolina touches upon.”

karolinawojtas.com

This article was originally published in issue #7884 of the British Journal of Photography magazine. Visit the BJP Shop to purchase the magazinehere.

© Karolina Wojtas
© Karolina Wojtas
© Karolina Wojtas
© Karolina Wojtas
Izabela Radwanska Zhang

Starting out as an intern back in 2016, Izabela Radwanska Zhang is now the Editorial Director of British Journal of Photography in print and online. Her words have appeared in Disegno and Press Association. Prior to this, she completed a MA in Magazine Journalism at City University, London, and most recently, a Postgrad Certificate in Graphic Design at London College of Communication.