Monika Jezusek was born in 1971 in Serock, Poland. She graduated from the University of Silesia in 1994 with a degree in painting, studying under professor Andrzej Wroński. But she didn’t start out as a photographer. She picked up a camera when she was 16, but at first it was just a hobby. It wasn’t until digital photography came along, with all its possibilities for manipulation, that she really found her voice.
Her work is all about staged photography. She doesnt just take pictures. She builds them from scratch. She aranges the space, chooses the costumes, directs the scenes, and then turns it all into a photograph. She tells simple human stories, but theres always something deeper going on underneath the surface.
She walks a tightrope between truth and fiction, nature and fable, pathos and the grotesque. She calls it a search for balance. She wants to take off the masks people wear and touch on what’s deepest and truest in them. But she also understands that beauty has many faces. Her inspirations are painters, not photographers: Vermeer, Olga Boznańska, Witold Wojtkiewicz, and Jerzy Duda-Gracz.
“The source of my inspiration is man, his inner self, his struggles, his dilemmas, his questions as well as that which lurks within the limits of his dreams and fantasies.”
That quote from her artist statement tells you everything you need to know. She’s not interested in surfaces. She wants to get inside people, to show their struggles and their secret dreams. She finds her subjects on the streets, ordinary people going about their day. But in her hands, they become something else, something more theatrical, more symbolic.
Her work has been shown all over the world. She’s exhibited in Poland, in cities like Warsaw, Łódź, and Białystok. But also further abroad, in Daugavpils in Latvia, in Cairo, and in Rome. She’s also been published in several magazines, including the Polish magazine “Charaktery” and the British theatre magazine of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Q: What kind of photography does Monika Jezusek do?
A: She specializes in staged photography. That means she doesn’t just capture moments as they happen. She creates them. She designs the sets, chooses the costumes, and directs the scenes like a film director. The result is a mix of reality and imagination that feels almost like a painting.
She also won a few awards along the way. In 2008, she got a distinction in the “Człowiek obok mnie” (Person Next to Me) competition in Białystok. In 2011, she took third place in a portrait competition in Trzcianka, and second place in another one in Koło. She’s not the kind of artist who chases prizes, but its nice to see her get recognised.
Q: Where can I see more of her work?
A: She has a blog at monalli.blogspot.com where she posts her photos and updates. Her work has also been featured on WooArts and in various exhibitions across Poland and Europe. Her photographs are also available through the DESA Unicum auction house.