1. Life and work

2. Personal life

3. Publications
    Publications by Milach  Zines by Milach  Publications paired with others  Publications with contributions by Milach 

4. Awards

5. Exhibitions

6. Notes

7. References

8. External links

Rafał Milach (born 1978) is a Polish visual artist and photographer. His work is about the transformation taking place in the former Eastern Bloc,^[1] for which he undertakes long-term projects.^[2] He is a nominee member of Magnum Photos.

Milach's books include 7 Rooms (2011), In the Car with R (2012), Black Sea of Concrete (2013), The Winners (2014) and The First March of Gentlemen (2017). He is a co-founder of the Sputnik Photos collective.^[3]

He won a 2008 World Press Photo award.^[4] 7 Rooms won the Pictures of the Year International Best Photography Book Award in 2011.^[5] In 2017 his exhibition Refusal was a finalist for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize.^[6]

Milach lectures in photography^[7][8] at the Institute of Creative Photography (ITF), Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic.

Life and work

Milach was born in 1978 in Gliwice, Poland.^[9] He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice in 2003 and the Institute of Creative Photography (ITF), Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic.^[9]

With ten other Central Eastern European photographers, he co-founded Sputnik Photos, a collective documenting transition in post-Soviet states.^[8][10]

For his first book, 7 Rooms (2011), Milach accompanied and photographed seven young people for several years living in the Russian cities of Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Krasnoyarsk.^[11]

Milach spent two years in Belarus from 2011 exploring its dire economic and political situation.^[3] Belarus is "a country caught between the ultra-traditional values of an older Soviet era and the viral influence of western popular culture."^[8] Milach was interested in the clean, tidy glamorous facade maintained by the state. His book The Winners (2014), portraits of winners of various "Best of Belarus" state and local contests promoted by the government, is a typology of state propaganda.^{[7][14][15][16]} It depicts mostly people, but also anonymous interiors that had won awards. The obscure official prizes are intended to foster national pride but to an outside audience might appear tragicomic.^[8] Milach travelled around the country working in the role of "an old-fashioned propaganda photographer".^[8] He was guided by the authorities as to who, where and how to photograph, a process which only improved his revealing the ideology of the state.^[3][8] Milach has said "the winners are everywhere, but the winnings are not for the winners – they are for the system", "the state is not interested in individuals, only in mass control."^[8]

In 2018 Milach became a nominee member of Magnum Photos.^[18][19]

Personal life

He is married to Ania Nałęcka-Milach.^[17]

Publications

Publications by Milach

• 7 Rooms. With texts by Svetlana Alexievich.
  • First edition. Heidelberg, Germany: Kehrer, 2011. {{ISBN|978-3-86828-265-8}}.
  • Second edition. Heidelberg, Germany: Kehrer, 2013.
• Black Sea of Concrete. Warsaw: [Rafał Milach], 2013. Photographs and text (in English). Edition of 300 copies. {{ISBN|978-83-933361-1-1}}.
• The Winners.
  • First edition. London: Gost, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-9574272-7-3}}. Edition of 553 copies (500 copies of the regular edition, 53 copies of the special edition).
  • Second edition. London: Gost, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-9574272-7-3}}. Edition of 200 copies.
• The First March of Gentlemen. Collages and photographs by Milach, archival images by Ryszard Szczepaniak, text by {{Illm|WD=Q11765574|Maciej Pisuk}}, Milach, and Karol Szymkowiak.
  • First edition. Kolekcja Wrzesińska, 2017.
  • Second edition. London: Gost, 2018. {{ISBN|978-1-910401-17-0}}. Edition of 650 copies.

Zines by Milach

• Pressident. Galeria Szara, 2017. {{ISBN|978-83-938735-2-4}}. 5 posters. Edition of 350 copies.

Publications paired with others

• In the Car with R: 29 Notes on Photography, Iceland and More. Gliwice: Museum in Gliwice, 2011. {{ISBN|978-83-89856-40-1}}.^[20] "Project manager: Maga Sokalska / Czytelnia Sztuki". Photographs by Milach, text (an English translation of Með R í bílnum) by {{ill|Huldar Breiðfjörð|de}}. Edition of 450 copies.
• W samochodzie z R.: 29 uwag o fotografii, Islandii i nie tylko. Gliwice: Muzeum w Gliwicach, 2011. {{ISBN|978-83-89856-40-1}}.^[20] Photographs by Milach, text (a Polish translation of Með R í bílnum) by Huldar Breiðfjörð. Edition of 250 copies.

Publications with contributions by Milach

• At the Border. [Warsaw]: Sputnik Photos, 2008. {{ISBN|978-83-927485-0-2}}. Photographs by Andrej Balco, Jan Brykczyński, {{Illm|WD=Q19934178|Manca Juvan}}, Justyna Mielnikiewicz, Rafał Milach, Domen Pal, Agnieszka Rayss and {{Illm|WD=Q12009002|Filip Singer}}; texts in English. The untitled preface says that the book "describes the illegal labour markets in the new member states of the European Union (Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia)." Milach contributes an essay, "Linh in Poland", about a Vietnamese man working at Jarmark Europa.
• U. [Warsaw]: Sputnik Photos, 2010. {{ISBN|978-83-927485-1-9}}. Photographs by Jan Brykczyński, Andrej Balco, Andrei Liankevich, Agnieszka Rayss, Rafał Milach (from the series Black Sea of Concrete), Filip Singer, Ivan Kurinnoy, Janis Pipars and Justyna Mielnikiewicz. With short texts in English by Serhiy Zhadan, Irena Karpa, and the photographers. "Photos taken in Ukraine in 2008–2010"; "the non-profit organization Altemus commissioned a team of young East European photographers from Sputnik Photos collective and Ukrainian writers, to travel the country and capture its ethos". Milach is credited as "book photo editor". Edition of 300 copies.
• IS (not). [Warsaw]: Sputnik Photos, 2010. Edited by {{Illm|WD=Q9152609|Andrzej Kramarz}}. {{ISBN|978-83-927485-8-8}}. Edition of 1000 copies. "A group project about Iceland by 5 polish photographers and 5 Icelandic writers."^[21] Photography by Jan Brykczyński, Michał Łuczak, Rafał Milach (from the series In the Car with R), Adam Pańczuk and Agnieszka Rayss; text in English by Kristín Heiða Kristinsdóttir, Sindri Freysson, Hermann Stefánsson, Sigurbjörg Þrastardóttir and {{Illm|WD=Q18748108|Huldar Breiðfjörð}}.
• Stand By = Ӡа Беларусь. Warsaw: Sputnik Photos, 2012. {{ISBN|978-83-927485-5-7}}. Photographs of Belarus by Jan Brykczyński, Andrei Liankevich, Manca Juvan, Rafał Milach (from the series The Winners), Justyna Mielnikiewicz, Adam Pańczuk and Agnieszka Rayss. With text by {{Illm|WD=Q14917034|Victor Martinovich}} in English and Belorussian. Edition of 1000 copies.
• Distant Place. Warsaw: Copernicus Science Centre, 2012. {{ISBN|978-83-927485-5-7}}. 5 books in soft cover, newspaper.
• Contact sheets. The Selected Photos. Vol II. Postcart, 2014. {{ISBN|978-8886795869}}. Edited by Giammaria DE Gasperis. With a foreword by Elisabeth Biondi.
• Psopplaainnd. Mapping the Blind Spots. Warsaw: Sputnik Photos; Madrid: Nophoto, 2014. {{ISBN|978-83-63610-99-9}}.
• Lost Territories Wordbook. Lost Territories Archive 1. Warsaw: Sputnik Photos, 2016. Photographs by various. Nearly one hundred short texts from twenty-one authors.
• Fruit Garden. Lost Territories Archive 3. Warsaw: Sputnik Photos, 2017. {{ISBN|978-83-941826-7-0}}. Photographs by Andrej Balco, Jan Brykczyński, Andrei Liankevich, Michał Łuczak, Rafał Milach, Adam Pańczuk and Agnieszka Rayss; texts in English by Stefan Lorenzutti and {{Illm|WD=Q11765574|Maciej Pisuk}}; edited by Rafał Milach. Edition of 500 copies.

Awards

• 2009: Winner, first prize stories, Arts and Entertainment, World Press Photo 2008, Amsterdam^[4][8]
• 2012: 7 Rooms won Best Photography Book Award, 69th / 2011 Pictures of the Year International^[5]
• 2017: Finalist, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for his exhibition Refusal^[22][23][24]

Exhibitions

• 7 Rooms, Brandts Museum of Photographic Art, Brandts, Odense, Denmark, 2013–2014^[25][26]
• Refusal, Atlas Sztuki Gallery, Łódź, Poland, 2017.^[27]
• The Winners, Side Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 2018^[28]
• Refusal, Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2018^[22][29]
• 7 Rooms, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw, Poland 2012^[30]

Notes

References

• Promise Party
• Promise Ring
• Promise ring
• Promise ring (disambiguation)
• Promise rings
• Promises (Adema song)
• Promises (Hercules episode)
• Promises in Death
• Promises Kept (Supremes album)
• Promises Kept (The Supremes album)
• Promises, Promises (Naked Eyes song)
• Promises, Promises (song)
• Promises (The Cranberries song)
• Promises to Keep (film)
• Promises Treatment Center
• Promises Treatment Centers
• Promises Written in Water
• Promises Written In Water
• Promise (The Maybes? album)
• Promise the Moon
• Promise theory
• Promise This
• Promise You
• Promise (You and Me)
• Promise (You & Me)