Maciej Dakowicz (Poland, Born 1976)

Maciej Dakowicz is a photojournalist who has reported from all around the world and is now a member of the inPublic street photographers collective but it his study of Cardiff after dark that he is most famous.

After Dark is different to traditional street photography, not relying on the traditional shapes and shadows and surrealism to be more of an extended photo essay on the binge drinking culture of the UK and as said by Sean O’Hagan in the Guardian [you] could even view it as a snapshot of what has gone wrong with Britain since deference and good manners gave way to lack of respect and vulgarity (2012). Especially after the Daily Mail spectacularly miss understood it in an article in 2011, but Dakowicz is not mocking is subjects but inviting the viewer to consider what drives them to this strange compulsion to drink with friends until they can’t remember what they have done (Howarth and McLaren, 2011).

Dakowicz drew on his own experiences for this project as a student in Cardiff over 5 years and this evident in his images – sharing a compassion not just being voyeuristic.

References

O’Hagan, S. (2012). Cardiff After Dark by Maciej Dakowicz. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/sep/30/cardiff-after-dark-maciej-dakowicz [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018].

Hardman, R. (2011). The shaming images that turned Britain into a laughing stock. [online] Mail Online. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2040260/Maciej-Dakowicz-Cardiff-After-Dark-binge-drinking-images-turned-Britain-laughing-stock.html [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018].

in-public.com. (2016). Maciej Dakowicz. [online] Available at: https://in-public.com/photographers/maciej-dakowicz/ [Accessed 27 Jan. 2018].

Howarth, S. and McLaren, S. (2011). Street photography now. London: Thames & Hudson.