Marzena Abrahamik
& Justin Schmitz at Michele Clark High School

Marzena Abrahamik & Justin Schmitz at Michele Clark High School

Justin Schmitz is a Chicago-based photographer. He is the recipient of the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship, The Tierney Fellowship, City of Chicago CAAP Grant, Albert P. Weisman Scholarship, and The Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Scholarship. A collection of his work was part of the Mid-West Photographers Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography.  He was runner-up for the Photography Book Now Prize, and a finalist for the Honickman First Book Prize.

I am an American artist, driven by photography’s ability to change our visual sensibility. I am  visually inspired by personal histories, attachments to unachievable and necessary for survival fantasies, to further investigate communal formations and transformations. I work through photographic series where images are anchored in historical and autobiographical events. My cultural heritage informs me as an artist and educator, and my biography is a motivating resource that provides insight and empathy to otherwise abstracted issues. I was born in Poland, grew up in Greece and for the past ten years, I have been working as a professional artist and educator in Chicago, IL.

http://www.marzena-abrahamik.com