Maciej Markowicz

Contemporary Artist • Camera Obscura

Portrait © Norbert Steinke 2025

Artist’s Statement

I’ve spent years learning to work with time rather than against it. These photographs are what happens when I stop trying to extract moments and simply let duration accumulate.

I work in complete darkness while moving through space. Light writes itself onto paper over several seconds. What appears isn’t a frozen instant but layered time—the way experience actually feels before we try to pin it down.

These artworks don’t freeze time. They let it accumulate on the paper the way experience accumulates in memory—as layered duration, not isolated instants.

Biography

Maciej Markowicz (born 1981, Poland) has been working with his signature mobile Camera Obscura technique since 2015. Based in Berlin, his works have been shown at Tate Modern, London, with recent solo exhibitions at the Polish Institute Berlin and a duo show at Anne Clergue Gallery, Arles.

His works are held in art collections including the Musée Français de la Photographie and the German Art Collection of the Bundestag, and have been featured in L’Œil de la Photographie and the British Journal of Photography.

In 2017, he received a grant from the Goethe-Institut and the German Federal Foreign Office for a year-long Camera Obscura Boat European tour.

Selected Highlights

Public Collections

  • Musée Français de la Photographie, Bièvres, France
  • German Art Collection of the Bundestag, Berlin, Germany
  • ESMT Berlin Art Collection, State Council Building, Berlin
  • Młyny Rothera, Institute for Culture and Arts, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Recent Exhibitions

  • Above the River and under the Sky — INNSITU Gallery, Innsbruck (2026)
  • BACK to the MAGIC — VisuleX Gallery, Hamburg (2025)
  • Le monde flottant — Anne Clergue Gallery, Arles (2024)
  • Landscape brought to life — Polish Institute Berlin (2024)
  • After we arrive, before we leave — Tate Modern, London (2011)

Education & Grants

  • Grant from Goethe-Institut and German Federal Foreign Office (2017)
  • Camera Obscura Boat / European Tour Commission (2017)
  • Presidential Scholarship, School of Visual Arts, New York (2011)
  • BA Photography, London College of Communications, London (2010)

Background

  • Born in Nowy Sącz, Poland
  • Studied in New York and London
  • Based in Berlin, Germany
  • Working with Camera Obscura since 2007
  • Mobile Camera Obscura practice since 2014

Process

  • Direct exposure on color paper
  • No film, no digital mediation
  • 8-second exposure time
  • Chromogenic paper negatives
  • Each work is unique