Bio­gra­phy

Our idea of the United Sta­tes of Ame­rica is uns­haka­bly cha­rac­te­ri­zed by the visual aes­the­tic of Hol­ly­wood and the Ame­ri­can adver­ti­sing indus­try. From the out­set, this aes­the­tic has uti­li­zed the effi­cacy of the see­min­gly limit­less, sun-drenched land­scapes fea­turing laid-back young people accom­pa­nied by cool music in brea­thta­king hotrods embra­c­ing adven­ture — and with it — an atti­tude towards life that reflects this expe­ri­ence. This appears to dia­me­tri­cally oppose the ever­y­day rea­li­ties in Cen­tral Europe. Per­haps that is why the ‘Cali­for­nia Life­style’ has been etched into the viewer’s ima­gi­na­tion as the per­fect sought-out loca­tion and a place where ever­y­thing seems pos­si­ble. The pho­to­gra­phic work of Mag­da­lena Wos­inska (born 1983) sub­scri­bes to not­hing less than this ideal. After having grown up in the ska­ter scene of Tempe, Ari­zona, she moved to Los Ange­les at the age of 21 and recei­ved a tho­rough app­ren­ti­ce­ship from a renow­ned pho­to­gra­pher. Shortly after beco­m­ing a free­lance com­mer­cial pho­to­gra­pher in 2009, she made a name for her­self. Since then Wos­inska has recei­ved com­mis­si­ons from a mul­ti­tude of major Ame­ri­can labels and has worked with highly paid models. As a for­mer gui­ta­rist and sin­ger in a hard rock band, she remains tightly lin­ked to the music scene by pro­vi­ding images for record covers.
Wosinska’s imagery as a com­mer­cial pho­to­gra­pher draws from the West Coast’s Ame­ri­can way of life, where loca­ti­ons, access­ories, and actors are per­fectly balan­ced by one ano­ther. Nar­ra­tive sta­ging and the camera’s use of sub­jec­tive par­ti­ci­pa­tion in rela­tion to the events taking place both con­vey the illu­sion of an authen­tic and almost docu­men­tary glance at a youth cul­ture cha­rac­te­ri­zed by fun and care­free sexua­lity. Typi­cal of Wosinska’s pic­to­rial rea­lity, which its­elf pos­tu­la­tes a mate­rial and aes­the­tic sense of self-fulfillment through the indi­vi­dual and the com­mu­nity, is the for­mal dis­tan­cing from the viewer’s expe­ri­ence. This is car­ried out prin­ci­pally through a post-production app­li­ca­tion of a “Vin­tage Style” that lends its­elf to the motifs of an his­to­ri­ci­zed, cine­ma­to­gra­phic pre­sen­ta­tion remi­nis­cent of the 1950s. Through this pro­cess, which also occurs in her com­mer­cial pho­to­gra­phy depic­ting par­ti­cu­lar brands, Wos­inska evo­kes to the viewer a positively-connoted, yet poin­tedly melan­ch­oly per­cep­tion of an image’s con­t­ents. The same is true for the pho­to­graphs that have sprung up outs­ide of the com­mis­sio­ned works and mostly docu­ment expe­ri­en­ces wit­hin Wosinska’s cir­cle of fri­ends. What beco­mes clear in com­pa­ri­son is that the motifs and imagery seen in her per­so­nal pro­jects can hardly be dif­fe­ren­tia­ted from those in her com­mer­cial work. As it turns out, Mag­da­lena Wosinska’s (pho­to­gra­phic) art and life are two sides of the same coin. It is pre­ci­sely the ove­r­u­sed buz­zwords “Sex, Drugs, and Rock’n’Roll” that para­phrase the hip­pie generation’s emo­tio­nal state and that the artist embo­dies. This we also find in her photographs—not as a super­fi­cial attitude—but as an authen­tic reflec­tion of her lifestyle.

Cur­ri­cu­lum Vitae

Port­fo­lio