BIO

Michal Zahornacký (b. 1988) is a Slovak visual artist and photographer based in Brno, Czech Republic. His work examines how photography can shift the way familiar subjects and situations are perceived.

Working with the human figure, architecture and public space, he alters the conditions under which these subjects are represented. Depending on the project, this may involve optical or physical interventions, time, light, space, or simply the decision of what remains inside the photographic frame and what is left outside it.

He is interested in the moment when a subject remains recognisable but ceases to feel self-evident. The viewer still knows what they are looking at, yet the familiar way of reading the image no longer fully applies. Photography therefore becomes not only a means of recording reality, but a way of examining the difference between what an image actually shows and what we automatically bring to it through prior knowledge and experience.

Each project develops its own method. Technique is not the starting point of his practice, but a means of testing a particular question through photography.

His work has been exhibited internationally across Europe, Asia and South America and has received recognition in international photography awards. Alongside his personal practice, he collaborates with cultural institutions on portrait photography and visual concepts.