Bio

Tomasz Dunajski is an independent photographer working at the intersection of documentary and metaphor. His practice is rooted in attentive observation and intuitive responses to light, form, and mood. Nature remains his primary point of reference — not merely as a subject, but as a space of personal experience, silence, and contemplation. He avoids visual excess and digital staging, following emotion, restraint, and subtle shifts of atmosphere. His photographs do not aim to explain reality; instead, they open a space for interpretation, balancing what is seen with what is sensed. He often explores uncertainty, perceptual thresholds, and the human tendency to project meaning onto seemingly neutral scenes, posing a recurring question: what do we truly see — and what do we want to see. He works as an electrician in a shipyard, while photography remains his essential form of expression. Born in Gdańsk, his sensitivity to visual form began with drawing and painting in childhood. His journey into photography started in the late 2000s, shortly before a mountain trip, when he purchased his first DSLR camera — from that moment, framing became his way of perceiving the world. Much of his inspiration comes from nature, approached with humility and patience, and his creative process is deeply connected to hiking and cycling trips that allow him to immerse himself in landscape and place. He is equally drawn to the urban environment, where everyday scenes reveal unexpected rhythm, geometry, and light. He favors the square format and black‑and‑white photography — restrained, raw, and expressive — though he now consciously combines monochrome and color, exploring how each reveals different emotional layers. In recent years, he has also embraced street photography and experimented with panoramic formats to capture space and atmosphere more fully. His photographs have been published in Together, Foto‑Kurier, and the artistic‑historical quarterly Neony Tożsamości, as well as in local press. One of his works was presented in the exhibition “GALERIA PRZEZ SZYBĘ – a completely different view of art.” In 2016, he received First Prize in the ASF International Fine Art Photography contest, with two additional works awarded. Until 2018, his photographs were regularly recognized in competitions and presented in thematic and post‑competition exhibitions, as well as in urban spaces. Since 2020, he has been a member of the Polish Society of Nature Photographers (ZPFP). In 2025, he won First Place in the ZPFP Photographer of the Year competition in the “Impressions” category, and in 2026 he became a member of the Gdańsk Photographic Society (GTF). After returning to active participation in competitions in 2024, his work has once again begun to receive recognition both in Poland and internationally. Alongside photography, Tomasz develops painting as a parallel, self‑guided practice — a space of gesture, color, and materiality that allows him to work more physically and intuitively than within the photographic frame. He also creates short film forms that have been shown at competitions and festivals, treating film as a natural extension of his visual sensitivity: a way of exploring time, movement, and atmosphere. Photography, painting, and film intertwine in his work, forming a coherent language grounded in attentiveness, emotion, and a deep need to engage with the world..