Justyna Badach

Bachelor Portraits 

November 1 - December 2, 2012

As an émigré who lived without a home country for many years, Justyna Badach is particularly interested in the relationship between individuals and place.  In Bachelor Portraits, Badach explores the living spaces that single men create and how these carefully assembled environments become profoundly personal reflections of the individuals.  The series began in 2003 when Badach used on-line ads to 'seek out men who tend to exist on the margins and are often considered invisible by society.' The images are an artist-model collaboration, constructed together during lengthy sessions in which Badach encourages the sitter to focus on their home life - to think, meditate and act out their fantasies. Each of the photographs is accompanied by a text panel written by Badach in her own voice to 'reveal what the camera cannot, what the men said, and what I felt'.  

Justyna Badach was born in the Soviet Union in 1972. She received a BFA in Photography and Art Education at the University of the Arts in Phladelphia and an MFA in Photography at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Badach has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group shows, nationally and internationally.  She has been a finalist for the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and a Critical Mass Top 50 Finalist. Badach currently lives and works in Philadelphia.