Bronislaw De Wilmesau-Kozka

Bronek Kozka lives and works in Melbourne Australia. Kozka has an on going involvement in arts education, he is a lecturer at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University. His investigation into the portrayal of remembered moments, through the tableau photograph, has lead to explorations of "real vs. fake", the use of 3d scanning and much more fluid understanding of what we remember and why it's important to us.

Kozka has completed a BA (photography), MA (Arts) and is currently a PhD candidate: "Perfect: Synthetic: hyper-reality, the re-staging of memory and the tableau" which looks at cultural theme parks, outdoor museums and historical re-enactment groups.

His images are constructed, be they physical room sets, 3D generated spaces (and characters) or other artificial spaces, such as the "Theme Parks" series. This "construction" based approach to lens based work has also informed his sculptural practice.

Kozka has exhibited in several group shows and award/prize shows, these include the national portrait prizes of both the Australia (2007+2009) and UK (2008), Albury Art Prize (highly commended), SCAP08 (commended) Scap09, Monash Gallery of Art Award (2008+2009) and the Hasselblad Masters Award 2008. Kozka's solo show include "Picturing Community: Ugunja, Kenya" (2002), "Auschwitz Revisited" (2005) and "The Best Years of Our Lives" (2009), Kozka has also been invited to exhibit a solo show at the Grand prix international de photographie de Vevey in September 2010, wining the Broncolor Award for lighting, running in the same month Kozka's work is also to be shown at the Pingyao International Photo Festival in China at which he was honored with an award. In 2011 Kozka's work featured at Chobi Mela, the Bangladesh photo festival. Works have been exhibited in Korea (Hanmi Museum of Photography) (2012), Italy (2012), Singapore(SIPF) and China (Pingyao 2012+13). His sculptures have been exhibited in Lorne's Sculpture Biennale, WSSP with a major work to shown at Sculpture by the Sea (2016).

Kozka's work was published by teNeues in the Hasselblad Masters Book Vol.1, they were "Sunshine House" & "Passion". Kozka's work was also featured in the Australian publication (Book), Hijacked: Australian & German Photography and Lumens Festival: Curating the Ancient City.

Kozka work is held in private and public collections in Australia and internationally. He is represented by Bett Gallery Hobart, Australia and Clelia Belgrado Gallery in Genova, Italy.

Client Centred Studio Lead:
I lead, coordinate and teach into the courses with in the BA Photography that engage with clients and industry. This ranges from studios (courses) that look at fashion photography , architectural photography, and portraiture through to courses like 'The Working Photographer'. A course where we interrogate the role of the 'working' photographer in industry and our society more broadly.

Lighting (coordinator, lecturer):
Some might accuse me of being obsessed with light, they might be right. Every aspect of photography relies heavily on lighting. After all, light is the element of nature that allows us to see, and allows a camera to capture an image. Not only is having light important, but having the correct kind of light is equally important, understanding how to see use and manipulate light is crucial. I coordinate and teach into the lighting classes for both the BA Program and the Masters Program.

OS Study Tours:
RMIT offers many options for OS engagement, while Covid has, temporality put these endeavours on hold, my commitment to the importance of international connections and experiences is unwavering. I have developed an run two studio tours aimed at photography (and related studies) students.

The Berlin-Paris-Arles & the Chicago-Rochester-New York Study Tours provide students with an exciting alternative to traditional classroom based learning. It offers students with first hand experience of the shaping of knowledge through experience of the cultural, historical and contemporary aspects of art and photographic practice in Europe.

Commercial working photographer, Bakehouse Studio, Down the lane Studio.

Client List:
Salvation Army; Hanover Welfare; Mind Australia (formerly Richmond Fellowship); CareSuper (Industry super fund); Ad Partners; Shannon's Way; George Patterson Bates + Y&R; Clemenger; Campaign Palace; Penguin Publishing; Cengage Publishing; NAB Floate Design; Jeans West; Lesley Kehoe Gallery; Victoria & Albert Museum; Storm Design; Stuart Pettigrew Design ; DPI (Vic Gov); Fluid Group (Design); Work Safe; Chorus Studio (Design); Hayman Design ; Becton; Square Circle Triangle (Design); Caravan Design; Ology Design ; Lesley Kehoe Gallery

Awards:
- 2012 Woolahra Small Sculpture Award
- 2012 Moran Contemporary Photographic Award finalist
- 2012 MGA W & W Bowness Photographic Award Finalist
- 2012 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award (finalist)
- 2012 Alice Prize (finalist)2012 Alice Prize (finalist)
- 2012 Albury Art Prize (finalist)
- 2011 Create Award, Quantum Create Awards 2011 – Photography
- 2010 MADC Award for Salvation Army Door Knock campaign
- 2010 Pingyao International Photo Festival: Award Best International Photography
- 2010 Sunshine Coast Art Prize Finalist
- 2010 National Portrait Prize Australia finalist
- 2010 Grand prix international de photographie de Vevey – Broncolor Award
- 2009 MGA W & W Bowness Photographic Award Finalist
- 2009 London ICC, short listed
- 2009 Albury Art Prize Finalist (Highly Commended Award)
- 2009 Sunshine Coast Art Prize Finalist
- 2009 National Portrait Prize Australia finalist
- 2009 Moran Contemporary Photographic Award semi-finalist
- 2008 MGA W & W Bowness Photographic Award Finalist
- 2008 Sunshine Coast Art Prize Finalist (Commended Award)
- 2008 Moran Contemporary Photographic Award finalist
- 2008 Stanthorpe Art Prize finalist
- 2008 Hasselblad Master – incl. published book Hasselblad Masters Book
- 2007 National Portrait Prize finalist

Exhibitions:
- 2012 “Lumens Festival: Curating the Ancient City” Suzhou, China
- 2012 “reConstruction of Memory” , FotoFreo (core program+artists in residence), Turner Galleries, Perth, Western Australia, Austtralia.
- 2012 “Digital Narratives” , Albury Regional Gallery, Albury NSW, Australia
- 2012 “Myth, Memory & the ¼ Acre Block” + “The Living Room” (Solo show), Caloundra Regional Gallery, QLD
- 2011 “The Australian Dream” (collaborative, 2 person show) , Visionquest Gallery, Genova, Italy
- 2011 “New Worlds” (group show), The Museum of Photography, Seoul, Korea
- 2011 “Myth, Memory & the ¼ Acre Block”, (Solo show), Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia
- 2011 Untitled exhibition, (Solo show), MARS Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
- 2011 “Pandora’s Hippocampus”, (Solo show), Bett Gallery Hobart, Australia
- 2011 Chobi Mela , International Photographic Festival, Bangladesh
- 2010 100 Portraits — 100 Photographers: Curated by Larissa Leclair and Andy Adams, FotoWeek DC, USA
- 2010 Hijacked Vol2, Exhibition , ACP, Sydney
- 2010 “Imagining the Everyday” Pingyao Photo Festival , China
- 2010 “Brave New World” Group Show, Queensland Centre for Photography
- 2010 “The Kitchen Sink” Group Show Mars Gallery, Melbourne
- 2010 “Suburbia: The Australian Dream” - Grand prix international de photographie de Vevey
- 2010 Arte Laguna Prize Group Exhibition - Tese di San Cristoforo(Arsenale di Venezia)
- 2010 “Modern Narratives: Photography as Story Teller”, Albury Regional Art Gallery
- 2009 “Group Show 33”, Humble Arts Foundation New York
- 2009 “The Best Years of Our Lives” , (Solo show) Shifted Gallery, Melbourne
- 2009 “The Best Years of Our Lives” (Solo show), Bett Gallery, Hobart
- 2009 “Inheritance” ACP exhibition, Australian Centre for Photography
Group show with : Bindi Cole, Tamara Dean, Lee Grant, June Indrefjord, Ka-Yin Kwok, Tracey Moffatt, Fiona Morris, Aaron Seeto, Martin Smith and Toni Wilkinson
- 2009 Moran Contemporary Photographic Award Exhibition, Sydney, Australia
- 2009 National Portrait Prize National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia
- 2008 National Portrait Prize UK, National Portrait Gallery, London
- 2008 Sunshine Coast Art Prize
-2008 Moran Contemporary Photographic Award Exhibition, Sydney, Australia
- 2008 Stanthorpe Art Prize Exhibition, Stanthorpe, Qld, Australia
- 2007 National Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia
- 2000 Auschwitz Revisited, Design Centre, (Solo show) Launceston, Tasmania, Australia