Joanna Stawnicka

Joanna Stawnicka’s photography captures the unseen, uncanny aspects of the human experience. Her expertly crafted black-and-white images refer to horror films, Surrealism, and psychological thrillers through their boldness of expression and manipulation of reality. Stawnicka blurs the line between fact and fiction. She instead works in a dream world that lies somewhere in the middle.

To find more of Stawnicka’s artwork, see her website or Instagram.

Joanna Stawnicka says she often finds it hard to take credit for her own work. This is because the images she constructs appear to her in periods of meditation, in dreams, or in corners of our existing physical reality. As such, she views her role as a translator of these forms, tasked with embodying them in her work. Stawnicka thinks of her process as automatic writing but with a camera. Rather than attempting to control every facet of an artwork, she leans into the flow of her psyche and allows it to reveal itself. The photographs that emerge from this process externalise the rich inner lives of human beings.

In particular, Stawnicka’s inspiration derives from banal experiences and her keen sense of perception. However, she also looks to her predecessors in photography and her love for literature and film, particularly that which focuses on spiritual, psychological, or paranormal themes. These sources of inspiration reveal their influence in Stawnicka’s ability to enter different, strange worlds in her work. Initially, she sought to do this by becoming a writer, but as a teenager, she began taking photographs. It was then that she began developing her symbiotic relationship with the camera by harnessing its ability to unclothe the subconscious.

Visions (2022)

Gravity dream (2022)

Guardian (2022)

Bend a little (2022)

Selected works from Stawnicka’s Visions series, 2022-ongoing.

The above series, Visions, was created in Stawnicka’s fourth year at The Glasgow School of Art, where she honed her photographic practice. At this point, she leaned into a creative process which combined diaristic snapshot photography with sculptural and performative elements. Visions meld the two consciously as Stawnicka takes intuitive snapshots and simultaneously stages photographs inspired by her dreams and visions. Rather than separating the staged and the spontaneous for her final result, she brings them together. Stawnicka draws from the experience of “hyperphantasia,” or the condition of producing very vivid mental imagery, for much of her photography, including Visions. As a result, the series ends up landing distinctly halfway between the human and the spiritual realms.

How to fit 2 (2021)

How to fit 6 (2022)

Selected works from Stawnicka’s How to fit series (2021-ongoing).

Another of Stawnicka’s conceptual series, How to fit, began during one of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Stawnicka brought a character from her dreams to life to visualise how it feels to be awkward and not fit into social norms or situations. Her guiding motive was to ask what humans do in situations like these. The series also pursues the feeling of loneliness, employing shadows and the colour black to personify such an abstract feeling. Stawnicka strives to create honest and vulnerable work to which others can connect. This ambition is aided by her ability to envision that which is not real and exteriorise it.

Julia Kowalska

David Sirota

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