Przemek and Patrick Zajfert at the Schwabing Christmas Market in Munich, December 2012

Przemek Zajfert – born in Poland in 1959. Abitur and studies of geology at the University of Wroclaw/Breslau. He had his first encounter with photography in a photo club. In 1981 he was called up for Polish military service, where he worked as a regimental photographer. As political pressure from the Communist regime increased, he decided to flee to Germany, where he found asylum as a political refugee. Since then, he has lived and worked in Stuttgart as an independent light and photo artist.

For more than 20 years, he travelled the world with his “Black Box” and the simplest pinhole cameras. The cube was his gallery, his creative studio and sometimes even his sleeping place. He always regarded the peculiar images that emerged on his journey only as a concomitant of his art. Time, transience and emptiness are themes that run like a thread through his work. In his works, Zajfert uses the technique of the pinhole camera as well as the technique of heliography, which Niepce developed between 1822 and 1826. Heliography was the first photographic process that made it possible to permanently capture an image with a camera obscura.

Together with his long-time friend Burkhard Walter, he founded the online project “camera obscura/2005/1-inf”. The project, dedicated to the work of Roman Opalka, started in 2005 and continues to this day, making it one of the longest running online art projects in the world.

In 2010, he launched the participatory project: “The 7th Day”. As Niepce’s influence is a constant guest in Zajfert’s work, this project is based on another photographic experiment he conducted in 1816. To date, over 13,000 people have taken part in the project and taken a photo that has been exposed for at least 7 days to several years. Places, objects and moments find their alienated imprint on the photographic paper and experience a new aesthetic dimension in overlapping layers of time.

Zajfert’s kinetic installations, based on Muybrig’s movement studies, attempt to capture the poetics of the moment, which is so difficult to put into words.

Author of several illustrated books and artist books, including: Camera Obscura Tübingen, Camera Obscura Heidelberg, Monolith.

Exhibitions and projects:
Ostrzeszowski Cross nie tylko na bieżni, Wystawa Fotograficzna, KF KADR — Czesław Bojszczak, Przemysław Zajfert, Marek Dytfeld 1979 • Wystawa fotograficzna — Lasek Klasztorny w Ostrzeszowie A.D. 1982 Janusz Gajda, Przemysław Zajfert, wrzesień 1982 • Lichtskulptur, Der fliegende Pfeil, Stuttgart — Hafen, 1996 • In einem dunklen Raum…, Installation, Stuttgart — Hafen,1997 • Vietnam Diskurs, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 1999 • Camera Obscura, BWA Wroclaw – Galerie DESIGN (mit Marek Pozniak), 1999 • Malerei mit Licht und Pixeln, (mit Kurt Buchwald, Arno Fischer, Jerzy T Lewczynski, Marek Pozniak) Altes Rathaus, Kulturhaus Potsdam, 2000 • Camera Obscura, KIK, Stuttgart (mit Marek Pozniak), • Tunnel Art, Fotografie, Installation, Tübingen, 2000 • Magic Orchid, Installation, französische Filmtage, Tübingen, 2001 • Malerei mit Licht und Pixeln, (mit Kurt Buchwald, Arno Fischer, Jerzy T Lewczynski, Marek Pozniak) Ausstellungszentrum und Ludwig-A.-Meyer Haus, Guben, 2001 • The secret of the black box, Installation, Candela, Stuttgart, 2002 • Ebene Null 2, Licht-Klang Installation, Stuttgart (mit Klaus Pfaffenzeller), 2002 • Puzzle kleine Schalterhalle, Installation, Buchvorstellung, Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, 2004 • Camera Obscura, (mit Marek Pozniak), Mala Galeria, Warschau, Polen, 2004 • Camera Obscura 2005/1-inf, Internet Projekt (mit Burkhard Walther), 2005 – bis heute, •  Camera Obscura, Wiesbadener Fototage, Galerie Pokusa, 2006 • Kraj, Galeria der Ort, Berlin, 2008 • Kraj, Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej Opole, 2008 • Mission Mars, (mit Wanda Kossak) Fotografie, Fleischmann, NY, 2009 • Camera Obscura, Fotografie, Installation, PH Ludwigsburg, 2009 • Fotografie, Installation, Star Gallery, Böblingen, 2010 • Camera Obscura, Fotografie, Installation, Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie, 2010 • Camera Obscura, (mit Marek Pozniak) Galeria FF, Łódź, 2011 • Langzeitbelichtungen – Camera Obscura, (mit Frank Schön) Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 2011 • Camera Obscura 2005/1-inf, (mit Burkhard Walther), Gedok Galerie, Stuttgart, 2011 • THE 7th DAY, Internet Projekt, 2012 – bis heute • Camera Obscura, Labirynt, Frankfurt/Oder, 2012 • 750 Bilder für Sindelfingen – Ein Kunst- und Mitmach – Projekt der Bürger für Sindelfingen (mit Martin Hein), 2013 • Dialog der Städte, Galerie der Gruppe GRAZ, Regensburg, 2013 • Edition 1959, KUNSTRAUM SCHWIFTING, Schwifting, 2013 • Vermessung der Zeit, Kunstkabinett der WMF-Fischhalle, Geislingen, 2013 • Vermessung der Zeit – Camera Obscura, Literaturhaus Stuttgart, 2014 • Der 7. Tag: Silber, Lavendel, Asphalt, Sonne und Zeit, THE 7th DAY, TEDxStuttgart, 2014 • THE 7th DAY, Camera Obscura – Orte des Übersetzens, Ljubljana  2015 • EDITION – Weil der Stadt 100/2015, (mit Thomas Hahn-Klinger) Wendelinskapelle, Weil der Stadt, 2015 • Methamorphosen – Deutsch-Polnisches Kunstprojekt, 2015 • Wystawa „Światło – czuła” w ramach Fotofestiwalu w Łodzi, 2016 • 700 Tage Metzingen – Camera Obscura Mapping, (mit Ulrich Koch), Metzingen, 2017 • Das Projekt „THE 7th DAY“ hat mein Sohn Patrick übernohmen, 2017 • Przemek & Patrick Zajfert – „the 7th day – Camera Obscura Project“, „Heliographien“, „I AM“, Galerie Piwnica Papugi, Stuttgart, 2018 • Now and forever – Heliography for my sons, Festiwal Fotografii “Interphoto”, Galeria BTL, Białystok, 2019 •

Prices
Herrenberger Straßengalerie Award, 2022•Herrenberger Straßengalerie Award, 2019 • Złota Sowa Polonii (Polonia Goldene Eule), in der Kategorie Bildende Kunst, 2014 • Herrenberger Straßengalerie Award, 2009 •