AVONDALE, Arizona – The image of the carefree bachelor, living the exciting and adventurous single-life, is not always reality. There are some men that live solitary and cloistered lives, all around the world, and that is what artist Justyna Badach wanted to capture in her photography series, Bachelor Portraits.
Badach will be visiting Estrella Mountain Community College (EMCC) to present and discuss her work on Tuesday, October 29, at 1:00 p.m. in the Center for Teaching & Learning on the campus, located on Dysart and Thomas Roads in Avondale, Arizona. This Visiting Artist Lecture is free and open to the public. Badach’s art collection will be on exhibit at the campus through October 31.
Bachelor Portraits presents these men who tend to exist on the margins and are often considered invisible by society. There were no pre-screenings or auditions. Each man’s inclusion in this project is based solely on their desire to participate and his willingness to spend several hours collaborating with me on their portrait.
Her art considers the living spaces that these single men create and how their carefully assembled environments become profoundly personal reflections of the individuals who occupy them. The images focus on their home life, the safe places where they withdraw from the world to think, meditate and act out their fantasies. This results in images that are extremely personal, emotionally intense, and sometimes unsettling.
“Each of the resulting portraits is accompanied by a short text that is written in my own voice. The texts expand the meaning contained within the photographic frame and create a direct point of contact between my own humanity and that of the man. They reveal what the camera cannot, what the men said, and what I felt.”
Badach was born in Leningrad and lived in Warsaw before immigrating to the United States. She holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including AIPAD New York, The Griffin Museum in Winchester, Emory University in Atlanta, Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, Photo Center North West in Seattle, Gallery 339 in Philadelphia, The Australian Center for Photography in Sydney and Art Wonderland Space in Copenhagen, among others.
Her work is world renowned. She has been the focus of full-length articles in art magazines, featured in catalogs and displayed in permanent collections. She has been awarded an artist residency from Light Work, and grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Leeway Foundation, Griffin Museum, and The Independence Foundation.