BIO
Anna Twardowska (born 1985 in Olsztyn, Poland) holds an MA in Journalism & Social Communication from The University of Warsaw.
For many years, Anna was a TV journalist dealing mainly with social issues. She is currently active as a self-taught photographer, trained by various mentors. Anna has also completed a full year study with the Association of Polish Art Photographers (2010-2011).
She lives and works in Warsaw.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Having a background in broadcast journalism, I started to gain a need for more creative approaches to visual storytelling. I thus picked up photography as an expressive means of communication – to further explore myself and my surroundings.
Initially, my visual language was moving towards stylized abstractions of a personal struggle against feelings of claustrophobia; of being blocked, of being pushed from different directions at the same time. Feelings which seemingly clash with a longing for closeness; an intimacy and freedom so often denied in contemporary Polish society, generally driving its forces against primal instincts of tenderness while promoting all sorts of conformism.
In the last few years, I found an equilibrium between self-made images and archival elements in the context of a still disclosed subject: Polish stone circles and how these sites have attracted all sorts of people with all sorts of motives. This project allowed me to further engage with apparent contradictions and tensions as arriving from Polish culture, while trying to find my own place in it.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 – Exhibit yourself at CSW, Centre for Contemporary Art in Toruń, PL
2021 – Polish Women Photographers, FotoArtFestival, Bielsko-Biała, PL
2020 – Fresh Eyes Photo Talents 2020, Westergas, NL
PUBLICATIONS
2025 – TRIBUS. Where The Spades Have Turned (dummy)
2024 – 2023 in the lenses of Polish Women Photographers (published by Polish Women Photographers Association)
2021 – Exhibit yourself at CSW – Photo album (published by CSW, Centre for Contemporary Art in Toruń, PL)
2020 – Selected work included in FRESH EYES: 100 European Photography Talents (powered by GUP)
2020 – Closer. Bring tenderness to life (self-published)