BLACK AND WHITE LIFE
Marcel Kolacek
CREDITS
Photography according to Marcel Kolacek (b. 1983, Czech Republic) has one, simple function: to break time into frozen instants and allow everyday life to be better observed, analysed, understood. Visual storytelling, however, takes much more than just a camera: Kolacek travels to remote destinations and by shooting exclusively with short lenses forces himself to get close and personal to the subjects – usually ordinary people – he portrays.
With his series on Kibera, part of the wider Black and White Life project, Kolacek aims to depict life in the largest slum of Africa in its crudest state. Inspired by legends of documentary photography such as Sebastiao Salgado, Marc Riboud and James Nachtwey, he creates images that allow the viewer an emotional connection with who is in the frame. Carefully avoiding a romanticisation of the exotic, Kolacek illustrates the struggles and joys of ordinary exordinary people.
