Thomas Dworzak

Thomas Dworzak (born 1972) is a photographer. He has produced a number of books and is a member of Magnum Photos. He was elected President of Magnum in 2017.[1]

Dworzak won a World Press Photo award in 2001[2] and in 2018 received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.

Life and work

Dworzak was born in Kötzting, Germany. He had already decided to become a photographer from an early age, travelling to Northern Ireland, Israel, Palestine and to Yugoslavia while still in high school.[3][4]

Dworzak lived in Tbilisi, Georgia from 1993 until 1998 where he documented the conflicts in Chechnya, Karabakh and Abkhazia. Whilst there he worked on a project about the Caucasus region and its people, the impact years of brutal war had on the region, and the interplay between Russian literature and the typical imagery of the Caucasus. This was published as the book Kavkaz.[5]

A few months after the start of the war in Afghanistan, in 2001, Dworzak travelled to Kandahar with Jon Lee Anderson on an assignment for The New Yorker. Whilst there he found and bought a collection of retouched portrait photographs of Taliban soldiers from photo studios, which he used for the book Taliban.[6][7] The pictures show a campy esthetics, close to the Gay movement in California or a Peter Greenaway film.[8]

For the decade after the September 11 attacks Dworzak covered the ensuing wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, and its impact on US politics. He produced the work for his book M*A*S*H* Iraq, examining the daily lives of medivac teams in Iraq, whilst embedded with them. The book includes screenshots of the TV series M*A*S*H overlaid with subtitles.[5]

An assignment from National Geographic to Sochi to cover the 2014 Winter Olympics became a project called Beyond Sochi, which was published in 2014 as both a physical and electronic book. In this book, Dworzak aimed to explore Sochi in the context of the Olympics and the preparation for it.[9]

Dworzak became a Magnum Photos nominee in 2000[7] and a member in 2004.

Publications

Publications by Dworzak
  • Taliban.
    • London: Trolley, 2003. ISBN 978-0954264857.
    • Frankfurt: Hans-Jürgen Maurer, 2003. ISBN 978-3000114021.
  • *M*A*S*H Iraq. London: Trolley, 2007. ISBN 978-1904563600.
  • Kavkaz. Amsterdam: Schilt, 2011. ISBN 978-9053306994.
  • Beyond Sochi. Paris: Seriti; Magnum Photos, 2014. ISBN 978-2954793306.

Publications with contributions by Dworzak
  • Georgian Spring: A Magnum Journal = ქართულიგაზაფხული მაგნუმი ს დღიურები. London: Chris Boot, New York: Magnum, 2009. ISBN 978-1905712151. Introduction by Wendell Steavenson, photographs by various Magnum photographers..
  • A Year in Photography: Magnum Archive. Munich: Prestel; New York, Paris, London, Tokyo: Magnum, 2010. ISBN 978-3-7913-4435-5.
  • Europa – An introduction and guide for Refugees and Migrants. Barcelona: Arab Fund for Arts and Culture; Magnum Foundation; Al-liquindoi, 2016. ISBN 978-84-617-5237-9. Text in Arabic, Farsi, English, and French.[n 1]
  • Home. Tokyo: Magnum Photos Tokyo, 2018. ISBN 978-4-9909806-0-3.

Awards
  • 2001: First Prize, Spot News Story, 2001 World Press Photo Awards, World Press Photo, Amsterdam.[2]
  • 2003: Award of Excellence, U.S. News & World Report, sixtieth Pictures of the Year International Competition, Pictures of the Year International, for Chechnya–Girl With Balloons.[10]
  • 2004: Award of Excellence, Magazine Division / General News Reporting, sixty first Pictures of the Year International Competition, Pictures of the Year International, for Chained, for Time magazine.[11]
  • 2018: Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society, Bath[12]

Notes
  1. A page about Europa is here within the Magnum Photos web site with links to download it for free.

References
  1. "Annual General Meeting (AGM)". Magnum Photos. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  2. "2001, Thomas Dworzak, 1st prize, Spot News stories". World Press Photo. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  3. "Thomas Dworzak • Photographer Profile • Magnum Photos". Magnum Photos. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  4. "Thomas Dworzak and Dynamic Symmetry Art". dynamic symmetry art. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  5. Bayley, Bruno (17 April 2013). "Thomas Dworzak Has Photos of Sad Marines and Taliban Poseurs". Vice. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  6. Traff, Thea (29 March 2014). "Thomas Dworzak's Taliban Glamour Shots". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  7. "2000, Thomas Dworzak, 1st prize, Spot News stories". World Press Photo. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  8. "Vom Nachttisch geräumt nachttisch 10.6.03 vom 10.06.2003 von Arno Widmann – Perlentaucher". perlentaucher.de. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  9. "Beyond Sochi • Thomas Dworzak • Magnum Photos". Magnum Photos. 25 May 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  10. "Winners of the Sixtieth annual Pictures of the Year International competition". Pictures of the Year International. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  11. "Winners of the Sixty-First Annual Pictures of the Year International Competition". Pictures of the Year International. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  12. "The Royal Photographic Society Awards 2018". rps.org. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
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