Biography

Artur Urbanski (b. 1969) is a documentary photographer. The leading theme of his work is the influence of romantic ideas on contemporary landscape and society. He is the author of the books Lodz - Photos of the beginning of the century and The End of the City. He was awarded the Polish Press Photography Prize and nominated to ESPY Photo Award in 2014. He has participated in many individual and collective exhibitions in Graz, Kosice, Hamburg, Derby, Kaunas, Porto, Swansea. His photographs were published by Sunday Times Magazine, Guardian i Der Spiegel and also featured in 2013 in Arte TV Metropolis document about the art scene in Lodz.

Phobos Ex Machina is a collaboration work between Artur Urbanski and Ewa Ciechanoswka. It examines how the selection of images and information affect our choices. Internet and social media gave the promise of ’many to many’ medium - truly democratic communication tool which is free of government or corporate influence. Instead of this idealistic vision nowadays we face various consequences of social media influenced activity at a global scale. Influence algorithms amplify our views distorting our own perception of reality and affect our choices - which we believe to be taken independently.

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Suburban space is a result of the freedoms gained with collapse of communism. 25 years ago we were given right to do business, to sell grounds, to build houses. At the same time space which surrounds our cities was not designed nor planned. It was shaped by range of personal freedoms. People left their cities to live in the bare fields and spend days of their life in houses of their dreams. Photographed in limited area of north-west suburbs of Lodz, Poland 2012-2015