Photographs are within us before we take them. Consequently they aren’t only about the objects photographed but also about us, our emotions, our experiences. The places, the objects, the people we photograph are chosen consciously or unconsciously because in them we recognize a part of ourselves. This is why each of us takes a different photograph of the same subject: the interior wealth of emotions, imagination, curiosity is different for each one of us and this is why we each see the world in our own very personal way. In the week we are going to spend together I would, therefore, ask you to put form and technique a little to one side and allow yourselves to make mistakes and be present in your emotions, to take more risks through your way of looking at the world and to get to know yourselves better.

Michael Ackerman born in Tel Aviv in 1967, at the age of seven he moved to New York with his family. He has been a professional photographer since 1990. He began working in the streets, in nightclubs and in the dock area of New York. In 1993 he made his first visit to India shooting in Calcutta, New Delhi and Benares. In 1994 he returned to India to continue his work in Benares. In 1996 he worked in New York on Times Square and in 1997 he began a project called “Smoke” with a singer called Benjamin in Cabbagetown, Atlanta. In 1998 the photographs he took in India earned him the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography in the young photographers category and in 1999 “End Time City” published by Nathan Delpire and Scalo received the Nadar prize as the best photographic book of the year. In the following years he worked in Poland, in Marseilles, in Naples and in Havana. In 2001 he published his second book “Fiction” with Delpire. From 1997 to the present day he has had many exhibitions throughout the world, among which have been those in New York, Berlin, Milan, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, Krakow and Paris. He is represented by the VU Gallery abroad and by the Agenzia Grazia Neri in Italy. At present he lives between New York and Krakow.