Real Foto Makes Art Out Of Polish eBay

A man without a head, a pair of shoes by the lake and a woman displaying her too-tight stockings – these are just a few of the images that photographer Mikolaj Dlugosz found on allegro.pl, the Polish equivalent to eBay. After browsing through thousands of pictures, Dlugosz selected the ones that appealed to him the most and that in his opinion, reflect “the reality of life in contemporary Poland”. His exhibition ‘Real Foto’ is a striking compilation of those images and it provokes as much laughter as curiosity with its chaotic frames and out-of-the-blue scenarios.

“What I like about those images is the fact that they’re completely real” explains Dlugosz. “Unlike professional pictures, they avoid staging and they’re free of symbolism that permeates photography today. What matters here is not the advertising, but the object and the fact that it means something to its seller.” Without using the typical tricks, the Allegro photographers draw upon the devices they know – the faces are pixellated or blurred out on Photoshop, the lighting is au naturel. The attention supposedly goes to the obscure items such as a rocket model, a tracksuit, a miniature train but it's the entire composition that makes the images a slight absurdity. But given the help of Dlugosz, the Polish snappers have suddenly pushed Internet photography into a realm of art. What lurks behind their advertising is often an outstanding composition and a sense of intimacy, which grants us a peek into someone else’s world.

Mikolaj Dlugosz’ “Real Foto” is currently exhibiting as part of “Red Eye Effect. Polish Photography of the 21st Century” at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw until the 7th September.