©Kinga Owczennikow, Cover of Framing the World, published by Ephemere

All photographs frame the world.

Kinga Owczennikow has recently released a new book, Framing the World, published by Ephemere, an independent press in Tokyo. The book is a collection of photographs taken during her travels that use framing to find a common visual language.

“Framing the World” is a book-length project which presents over fifty photographs with internal frames, how they sharpen focus on the world and refine viewers’ understanding of viewing – of both the world and photographs. Frames within the photograph’s frame suggest that the photograph self-consciously occupies art space – close viewing space – and these frames invite analysis, interpretation, and appreciation. Internal frames can attract and resist, reveal or deceive, imply their own limitations. Even imply viewers’ limitations, the cognitive frames through which they process the world.

©Kinga Owczennikow, Cover of Framing the World, published by Ephemere

I explore how internal frames within photographs can impact our understanding of both the image and the world around is. This project examines how these frames can highlight, distort, or even deceive our perception, influencing how we interpret both the art and the reality it depicts. – Kinga Owczennikow 

©Kinga Owczennikow, Spread from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Spread from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Spread from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Spread from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

Framing the World presents photographs with internal frames, how they sharpen focus on the world and refine viewers’ understanding of viewing – of both the world and photographs. Frames within the photograph’s frame suggest that the photograph self-consciously occupies art space – close viewing space – and these frames invite analysis, interpretation, and appreciation. Internal frames can attract and resist, reveal or deceive, imply their own limitations. Even imply viewers’ limitations, the cognitive frames through which they process the world. – by Tom LeClair

©Kinga Owczennikow, Back Cover from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

A native of Poland, Kinga Owczennikow is a photographer who explores the built and natural environments. She has resided in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Bhutan, South Africa, and several European countries including Albania and the United Kingdom. This constant geographical movement permitted her to retain a curious and attentive eyesight, at the same time gradually building an extensive experience of the wider world. Kinga is currently based in New York City.

Kinga first studied photographic theory and practice at the Warsaw School of Photography. She holds a BA (Hons) in Photography from the University for the Creative Arts in the UK. Kinga is an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society, a member of the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel and the International Center of Photography in New York City. She is also a member of the Soho Photo Gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan.

Kinga had a solo exhibition “The secret paths of Hong Kong” at the Asia and Pacific Museum in Warsaw, in 2011. Her photographic work has been exhibited in group shows in the UK, Hungary, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and the United States. Kinga’s work has also been included in numerous magazines and online publications such as BBC Travel, The Eye of Photography, All About Photo, Noice Magazine, ARTDOC Photography Magazine, HK Magazine, F-Stop Magazine, Photo Vogue, and Quarterly Journal of Photography Issue 44.

Instagram: @kingaowczennikow

©Kinga Owczennikow, Tirana 2020, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Warsaw 2021, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Hong Kong 2014, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, New York City 2021, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Tirana 2020, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, New York City 2021, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Gjirokastra 2017, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Gjirokastra 2017 from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Korca 2019, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Tirana 2019, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Tirana 2019, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Hong Kong 2015, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, Southend-on-Sea 2022, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, San Francisco 2023, from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

©Kinga Owczennikow, London 2022 from Framing the World, published by Ephemere

“Framing the World”  will be included in the Tokyo Art Book Fair 2025 (TABF) which is going to take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo this month.

Instagram: @tokyoartbookfair

In addition to the fifty three photographs, this volume features foreword and afterword by Tom LeClair.

Tom LeClair is the author of eight novels, four books of criticism, numerous essays, and hundreds of reviews of literary fictions and photography books. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Cincinnati.

Web: https://tleclair.substack.com/