Damian Lemański – born in 1985. He lives in Warsaw. His work focuses on people and their place in the contemporary world. He often addresses topics that are overlooked by mainstream media but resonate deeply with his sensitivity and compassionate perspective. The everyday life of small communities is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for him. Through his photography, he examines the moral condition of people, which he understands primarily as treating each other well and taking responsibility for the community and the world. In his work, he draws on his empathy and attentiveness, engaging deeply with his subjects and building close relationships with them. By being sincere in his intentions and open in communication, he aims to create an environment in which those he photographs feel safe and comfortable. He studied photography at the European Academy of Photography (under Dr. Izabela Jaroszewska) and attended workshops in Poland, Hungary, and the United States. He comes from Korsze, a small town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Although he currently lives and works in Warsaw, he continues to pursue personal photographic projects in his hometown region.
“Kids of Lunik IX“
“Kids of Lunik IX” is a series of portraits of children and youth living in a Roma housing estate in Slovakia. Among the several thousand of residents (c. 3,500 – 6,000, nearly 100% of whom are the Roma), over a thousand are children.
They live in inhumane conditions, often in families of more than a dozen people, cramped into apartments of just over twenty square meters, surrounded by filth, insects, and rats that live in piles of garbage around the buildings. Although there are no walls surrounding the estate, which is located on the outskirts of Košice, almost no one from the outside visits the place, mainly due to fear and stereotypes about the Roma community. And while some of them may contain grains of truth, the children deserve attention, care, and support, as they are not to blame and should have equal opportunities for a fair start in life.
