Negative book # 54

Aneta Grzeszykowska

  • type of object: photography
  • date: 2012
  • material/technique: pigment ink on cotton paper
  • dimensions: 38 x 50 cm, in frame 46 x 58 cm
  • inventory No.: F-57
  • image licensed under: CC BY-SA

The series of black-and-white photographs was created for the artist’s 2013 solo exhibition Death and the Maiden in Zachęta. Its starting point was the photographic medium, which captures personal, private situations. However, Grzeszykowska reversed the black and white relationship by presenting the photos in a negative version. In addition, she painted her body black before taking the photographs, so that in the negatives only her silhouette appears white, in sharp contrast to the black bodies of the people who accompany her.



This manipulation — of both the medium and the viewer — seems to undermine faith in the representation of reality conveyed by photography. But the focus is not only on the analysis of the medium. Negative Book ties in with the artist’s previous works by focusing on the representation of her own body and its performative character — it presents a kind of intimate diary. The negative–positive opposition, however, depersonalises the body and strips it of emotion, making identity and individuality relative.


Other works by artist in the Zachęta collection

  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 5
    Negative book # 5Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 7
    Negative book # 7Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 8
    Negative book # 8Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 9
    Negative book # 9Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 12
    Negative book # 12Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 25
    Negative book # 25Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 35
    Negative book # 35Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 45
    Negative book # 45Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 62
    Negative book # 62Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 63
    Negative book # 63Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy Negative book # 64
    Negative book # 64Aneta Grzeszykowska2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy YMCA
    YMCAAneta Grzeszykowska, Jan Smaga2005

Other works from this category

  • Zdjęcie pracy Small Ghetto. View from 39 Zielna Street towards the north-west — 13 April 2012, from the series Other City
    Small Ghetto. View from 39 Zielna Street towards the north-west — 13 April 2012, from the series Other City Janicka&Wilczyk2012
  • Zdjęcie pracy
    Erika Kiffl1992
  • Zdjęcie pracy
    Leonard Sempoliński
Additional materials
  • Grafika obiektu: Aneta Grzeszykowska
    mediateka / video-documentation
    Aneta Grzeszykowska
    Death and the Maiden
  • Grafika obiektu: Aneta Grzeszykowska
    mediateka / photo gallery
    Aneta Grzeszykowska
    Death and the girl
  • Grafika obiektu: Aneta Grzeszykowska.Death and the Maiden
    mediateka / posters
    Aneta Grzeszykowska.Death and the Maiden