Instagram Takeover: Rafal Milach

Finalist of the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2018, we welcome Rafal Milach to our Instagram takeover, March, 2018.

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Rafał Milach (b.1978 in Gliwice, Poland) – visual artist, photographer, author of photo books. His work focuses on topics related to the transformation in the former Eastern Bloc. Graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice, Poland, and the ITF Institute of Creative Photography of the Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic (currently lecturer at ITF).

Hi it’s @rafal.milach here sharing images from The Winners series. Belarus, Minsk 2013. Marina, winner of the Brest District’s Miss Belarusian Railways competition. The Winners exhibition is currently on view at @sidegallery1977 Newcastle, UK. #IGTakeover @rafal.milach #photography #propaganda

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Hi it’s @rafal.milach here sharing images from The Museum series. Khyrdalan, Azerbaijan 2016. Geometric figures and models triggering optical illusions, partly created by pupils of the chess school located in the Khyrdalan Heydar Aliyev Centre. The structure and observation of these objects is intended to help develop young Azerbaijanis’ spatial imagination and abstract thinking skills. The man the centre is named after began his road to authority as an official of the Stalinist secret police organisation, the NKVD. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and an opponent of both Gorbachev and the politics of glasnost. In 1993, he became the president of the recently independent Azerbaijan / This image is also part of REFUSAL exhibition currently on view at @thephotographersgallery in London nominated for #thedeutscheborsephotographyprize 2018 #IGTakeover @rafalmilach #photography #propaganda #exhibition

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His award-winning photo books include The Winners, 7 Rooms, and The First March of Gentlemen. Rafał Milach has received scholarships from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Magnum Foundation, and European Cultural Foundation. Finalist of the prestigious Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2018 and winner of the World Press Photo competition. Co-founder of the Sputnik Photos collective of photographers.

From Chasing a White Horse series. Batumi, Georgia 2013 © Rafal Milach. One of the interiors of the Alphabetic Tower. In 2012, the Rustavi 2 Broadcasting Company, which supported the then president of Georgia, Micheil Saakashvili, had a television studio there. That same year, Saakashvili’s party lost the parliamentary election and the former president was formally accused of appropriating government funds. The Rustavi 2 editorial department was deserted overnight, becoming a giant trap for birds. Dozens of rock sparrows flew into it through a small opening in the wall. Once they were trapped inside, a combination of heat and starvation killed them. This image is also part of REFUSAL exhibition currently on view at @thephotographersgallery in London nominated for #thedeutscheborsephotographyprize 2018 #IGTakeover @rafal.milach #photography #propaganda #exhibition

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Hi it’s @rafal.milach here sharing images from the series The First March of Gentlemen. It’s a fictitious narration composed of authentic stories. Historical events related to the town of Września, Poland came to be the starting point for reflection on the protest and disciplinary mechanisms. In the series of collages, the reality of the 1950s Poland ruled by the communists blends with the memory of the Września children strike from the beginning of the 20th century. This shift in time is not just a coincidence, as the problems which the project touches upon are universal, and may be seen as a metaphor for the contemporary social tensions. #IGTakeover @rafal.milach #photography @kolekcjawrzesinska @issp_latvia The First March of Gentlemen is currently on view at the new amazing @issp_latvia gallery in Riga, Latvia. Second edition of the book to be published by @gost_books soon

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His works have been widely exhibited in Poland and worldwide, and can be found in the collections of the Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw, the ING Polish Art Foundation, Kiyosato, the Museum of Photographic Arts (Japan), and Brandts in Odense (Denmark).

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