Max Miechowski
London, UK
Max Miechowski (b. 1989) is a British photographer based in London. With a focus on long-form projects, which are often rooted in portraiture, his practice centres on themes of connection and community, and explores the intricate, at times conflicting, relationships between people and place.
He has participated in numerous group exhibitions including at the National Portrait Gallery, London; BASE Milano, Milan; Copeland Gallery, London; Galerie Joseph at Paris Photo, Paris; and ThePrintSpace, London. Recent solo exhibitions include Land Loss, PhotoLondon, Somerset House (2022), A Portrait of Newham, 1000 Dockside, London (2021); and Burgess Park, ThePrintSpace, London (2018).
His work has been featured in a wide variety of publications including The Guardian, the New York Times, It’s Nice That, M Magazine, British Journal of Photography, and the Financial Times.
Miechowski has been the recipient of multiple awards, including the Photo London/Nikon Emerging Photographer Award (2022), LensCulture’s Emerging Talent Award (2019), the British Journal of Photography’s Portrait of Britain (2019 and 2018), and the People’s Choice Award of the Palm Photo Prize (2018).
Max Miechowski’s Land Loss follows the artist’s deep interest in the British landscape, exploring themes of time, community and resilience. These absorbing portraits, landscapes and delicate details are captured with Miechowski’s characteristic sensitivity, presenting a quiet space of contemplation. In the work, natural cycles and geological erosion act as gentle and sometimes abrupt reminders of loss and impermanence. As Miechowski learns by observing this seaside community, “we too are as temporary as the cliffs”. At a time of social and ecological upheaval, Land Loss reconnects us to the environment, and creates an extended metaphor where great uncertainty, compassion and care is carried by the landscape. Recalling his experience of visiting, photographing and witnessing this changing community, Miechowski writes:
“I expected to find storms, rough seas, ruined houses falling into the waves—a sense of urgency from the people living on the edge of a landscape, where entire towns have been lost to the North Sea—instead, the land felt still, the waters were calm, and time moved slowly.