Alicja Pietras, born in Bytom, Poland, in 1975.
I started being passionate about photography in my late twenties when I joined a photography course in Warsaw School of Photography. Quickly I developed my great interest in femininity and its different meanings. As intimate contact is crucial for me, I usually photograph my closest friends . However I have also been taking a lot of self- portraits as I consider the camera as a mirror, trying to see what's beyond 'the
mask'.
I'm currently working on my diploma which combines two main subjects of my interest: feminity and dreams. I also explore what 'memory' is and how it is subconsciously influenced and changed by my fears and hopes. After all we remember the events which have never happened.

Exhibitions:

2008 March: Wrocław, 'Memory Portrait' (with Marta Skłodowska 'The Well')
2008 May: Warszawa, Post-competitive IV Warsaw Art Photography Festival
group exhibition
2008 June: Katowice, exhibition of a group 'SzareDni'

Awards and Acknowledgments:

2008 May: Koło, 'Portrait', 2nd prize

Alicja certainly completes the surreal circle at 3rd Thought and adds to what artists like Japi Honoo, Tomas Rucker etc have brought in earlier. Two thumbs up to Alicja's wonderfully dark world.