michel szulc krzyzanowski

conceptual photography

Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was born in 1949 in Oosterhout, North Brabant. Now a city, at that time Oosterhout was a village 8 kilometers from Breda in the south of the Netherlands.

His mother came from Breda and his father was a Polish soldier who ended up in the south of the Netherlands because of the Second World War.

Zbigniew Szulc Krzyzanowski in 1939

After their marriage in 1946, they had a house built in Oosterhout financed by the wealthy grandparents of Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski.

The family consisted of two sons and two daughters: Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski was the third child.

Again thanks to financial support from his grandparents, his father, who was an engineer, became director of a factory in Oosterhout where steel windows and doors were manufactured.

Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was born at home as the third child, with a friend of his mother's as midwife whom she knew from her boarding school days in Voorschoten: Ans Gerlach, who belonged to the family of the well-known transport company Gerlach.

A few days after his birth, on April 23, 1949 at 9:10 am, he was reported to the Civil Registry by his father and was registered with the names Michiel, Joseph, Henri, Maria. Although his mother had wanted to name him Charles: after her father.

All 4 children of his parents were given 4 first names: a family tradition. Although identified as Michiel, his mother called him Michel, but his father called him Michalek.

Joseph as middle name: the name of his maternal grandfather. Henri as third first name: the first name of his godfather, Henri Mastboom. His parents gave all their 4 children the fourth first name Maria, to indicate that they were Catholic.

Not long after his birth, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was baptized in the Heilig Hart Church in Oosterhout. His godmother was his mother's sister: Marie-Constance Laurijssen, a lawyer's widow. His godfather was a cousin of his mother: Henri Mastboom, a lawyer and large landowner from Oud-Gastel, whose father had been mayor there.

Henri Mastboom

Until the age of 18, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski received a Fl note from his wealthy godfather every birthday. 25,– will be sent. After that there was sporadic contact between them. Bachelor Henri Mastboom left his entire fortune to turn his 19th century house into a museum. See: http://www.mastboomhuis.nl/content/familie/henri.php

His godmother spent part of her life somewhat concerned about Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski.

The first summer of his life, at just 2 months old, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski went to the beach. His mother had a great love for the beach and the sea; All her life she went to the coast for a few months every summer. She then rented a number of rooms in “Duinhotel Zomerlust” in Zoutelande and the family and Marie van Ombergen, the nanny, spent the day on the beach. Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski learned to walk on the beach of Zoutelande. Until he was 17, he spent all summers with the family in Zoutelande.

At the age of 5, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski went to the local kindergarten in Oosterhout where he locked the entire class, including teacher Miss Jaspers, in the classroom. He threw away the key and went home. As punishment, he had to sit in the girls' side of the class for the rest of his kindergarten years.

The situation at home had a major influence on his personal growth, his life and his functioning at school. His parents had a conflictual relationship. There were irreconcilable language problems between them. His father spoke fluent Dutch and only a little French and English. His mother and her children did not speak Polish. There were also cultural differences: his mother was strongly attached to her Dutch/Belgian family and their aristocratic way of life. His father could not be connected to the Polish culture and way of life that he loved. His father also suffered from serious trauma due to his war experiences. He had been through so many horrific experiences that he had a very closed personality. He did not say a word about his war experiences or even about his life in Poland before the war broke out. He was an unpredictable man who could erupt in unexpected and intense emotions, sometimes accompanied by physical violence. In those years, PTSD was not recognized as such.

Due to the many conflicts between his parents, which created a tense and unsafe atmosphere in the parental home, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski preferred to isolate himself so as not to have to witness his parents' violent arguments. He spent a lot of time alone in the large garden around the house where he gained experiences in his own created world. He also found a friend and mentor in Janus Gabriëls, the gardener. This taught him about animals and plants and instilled in him a love for nature. The childcare worker who lived with the family, Marie van Ombergen, also took care of him. She gave him the affection and attention that his parents could not give to their children because of their conflicts and personal problems. In the house there was a large bookcase in a small room with a leather armchair and a warm central heating radiator next to it, and there Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski also found escape from the unpleasant family life by reading many books during the winter months. In this way he developed a love for the book, a great reading and general knowledge. When he had read all the books on the bookcase, he worked his way through the complete Winkler Prins encyclopedia.

His father, although traumatized and emotionally unbalanced, was also sometimes humorous, active and enterprising. He had various hobbies, such as gliding, building model airplanes and photography. In the Oosterhout house he had set up a dark room, just like his own father did in Poland. Because Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was his father's favorite son, he often took him along. Such as to Gilze-Rijen airport when he went gliding and also when he printed photos in his darkroom. There, as a 5-year-old child, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski first saw an image appear in the developer on sensitive paper. His father gave him a camera as a gift at the age of 6. He has been taking photographs ever since. After a new conflict with his wife, his father left his family overnight when Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was 7 years old. After more than a year, his father returned, but then suddenly left the family twice more. The last time for good. These were dramatic experiences for a young child, especially because of the mystery created around them by the adults. Because the outside world was not allowed to know about it in order not to damage the aristocratic reputation of the family. The four children were left in the dark about the reasons for their father's sudden absence.

The Primary School was close to the parental home and was led by the Broeders van Huybergen, a Catholic Friar Minor order who still wore the habit at that time. Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski never stayed at primary school, but he transferred conditionally twice. During that period he sang in the Gregorian church choir, was an altar boy and with the cubs.

At the age of 12 he made his first big trip with his parents. In the middle of the Cold War, in 1961, his parents traveled by car with their two sons to Poland via East Germany to visit his father's family. Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski was confronted with a society dominated by Communism. From the hotel window in Warsaw he saw schoolchildren marching in uniform and his uncles and aunts, despite being highly educated, living in poor conditions. But he also experienced the great warmth of the Polish family who were happy to meet him for the first time and warmly embrace him.On the outward journey back to the Netherlands in the Opel Kapitan while waiting in the no man's land between Poland and East Germany, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski unknowingly walked into a minefield but miraculously escaped certain death from an exploding land mine.

1963 - 1970

After primary school, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was sent to the MULO in Oosterhout. Tests had shown that he had the intelligence for HBS, but because of his capricious and disobedient behavior it was considered better to let him do the MULO first. After the first year at MULO, his mother thought it was a good idea to remove her rebellious son from the family and place him in a boarding school. The behavior of Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski, without a father in the house and kept ignorant of whether he would even return, thus rebellious, could not be guided by his mother into the path she so rigidly desired. That is why he was taken to the Pensionaat de Westerhelling in Nijmegen by his mother, his brother and sisters as well as the childcare worker.

An institution with a strict policy led by Belgian Marist Brothers. Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski felt trapped there, alone and isolated from the outside world. Only once every two weeks, and only with good behavior, were the students, exclusively boys, allowed to go home for a weekend. He also had difficulty with the strict discipline that the habit-clad Brothers imposed on the boys with physical violence. In addition to physical violence, the Brothers also sexually abused the boys, but Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski was able to adequately counter various sexual advances from Brother Frans. At this boarding school, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski became a member of the photography club, learned to print and met fellow students who were also interested in photography. One of them was Teun Hocks, with whom he remained friends for many years and who would later become a very successful artist.

At the age of 14, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski traveled alone for the first time. During his holiday he traveled by train to Düsseldorf where he stayed with the Vossen pharmacist family he knew from Zoutelande.

Life at boarding school was very bad for Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski and after many conflicts he was removed from Pensionaat de Westerhelling by Brother Jozef, the Superior, after two years.

He returned to the MULO in Oosterhout after his mother's attempts to get him placed at another boarding school failed. Thanks to the head of the MULO in Oosterhout, Charles Krijnen, who was familiar with Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski's complicated family situation, he was able to study with greater freedom. For example, he was allowed to produce a school newspaper during class time, which was filled in by himself due to a lack of copy from his fellow students. The illustrations were by Teun Hocks who had studied at the St. Joost art academy in Breda. In 1966 Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski won the first prize in a photo competition organized by his school and in 1967 Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski obtained the MULO diploma as one of the best students. He achieved a 10 for history, among other things.

In the same year, 1967, he started his studies at Academie St. Joost, Breda in the direction of photography. He was taught by photographer Hans Katan and type designer Chris Brand, among others. Some of his fellow students later became well-known Dutch photographers: Thed Lenssen, Marc Felperlaan, Jan Bogaerts. Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski did not take optics and chemistry lessons, although compulsory, because he could not find any interest in them. After the first year, with a zero for optics and chemistry on his points list, he had to leave the Akademie St. Joost for that reason.

He traveled through France with Teun Hocks in the summer of 1968, hitchhiking, taking photographs, living on baguettes and cheap red wine and sleeping in haystacks. He spent the rest of 1968 doing photographic odd jobs and had no idea how to proceed. At the urging of a friend, Corrie van Heyst, he presented his photos to Jan van Haaren, director of the Royal Academy of Art and Design in 's-Hertogenbosch, at the end of 1968. The reason for registering in 's-Hertogenbosch was that Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski knew that the then famous photographer Wim Noordhoek taught there with whom he wanted to study. The director Jan van Haaren hired Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski without forcing him to commit to a teaching schedule and Wim Noordhoek took care of him after seeing his work.

Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski moved to 's-Hertogenbosch and started living on his own. During the first months, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski worked in the Graphics Department with teachers Dick Cassée and Rob Otten and learned the technique of etching and also took photographs under the guidance of Wim Noordhoek. He later dropped graphics and concentrated entirely on photography. In 1969 he made a two-month photo trip to Czechoslovakia and Poland with Wim Noordhoek. On May 25, 1970, at the age of 21, he obtained his diploma in free printmaking and photography after skipping a year of study and taking his final exams a year earlier.

1971 - 1984

Since graduating, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski has been working as an independent photographer. From the start he concentrated on travel photography and photo projects he devised himself. He did not see commercial photography and working for clients as his field of work. On September 1, 1970 he was interviewed by Ageeth Scherphuis in the TV program “Art Signaling” and he published in 1971 in the photo magazines “Fototribune” and “Foto”. In 1971 he registered as a member of the professional association of photographers GKF and his work was positively selected on August 25, 1971 by Cas Oorthuys, Aart Klein and Maria Austria. In 1970 and 1971 he traveled to Italy to photograph landscapes in Tuscany, to Paris to portray the director Gérard Pires for Avenue and again he traveled with Wim Noordhoek, this time to photograph landscapes along the Loire.

In 1971, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski also spent a period on the island of Schiermonnikoog. He lived in the calf stable of a farm and had received special permission from Rijkswaterstaat to enter the closed bird breeding area to take photographs. He took long walks on the part of the island where no other people were allowed: the vast beaches and sandbanks where thousands of seabirds were nesting. There he made his first photo sequences: series of photos that show a striking visual event. The first time he came to this form of photography was during a walk on the northeastern part of the island. On the horizon of the deserted and flat landscape he saw an object without being able to see what exactly it was. He realized that by walking towards the object it would slowly become clear what it was. He thought he could photograph this process of slowly discovering what the object was by taking a photo every ± 10 meters. It turned out to be a picket fence on which a wooden building was placed in the summer. After creating this photo series, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski realized that he had entered a new area of photography where there was still much to discover. During his stay on Schiermonnikoog, he continued to work on his sequences by approaching more subjects, such as the picket fence series.

On October 29, 1971, he gave his first lecture in Amsterdam about his sequences from Schiermonnikoog for the members of the professional association of photographers GKF. His former teacher Wim Noordhoek was present, but he described the sequences as “worthless”.

On November 21, 1971 he had his first exhibition with his sequences in the Noordbrabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch. This exhibition was organized by the head of the Provincial Exhibition Service Domien van Gent, who would remain committed to the work of Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski for years and who expertly guided the early success as a mentor.

In July 1972, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the curator of photography Jean-Claude Lemagny, purchased 50 photographs by Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski for their collection. On September 12, 1972, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski received his first subsidy from the Ministry of C.R.M.: a stipend. He bought his first car from that: a Citroën Ami Break with which he immediately made a working trip to Portugal with the artist Jan Hendrix.

In 1972 he was invited by the Camden Arts Center in London to make sequences in that city and also carried out the photo project “Camden interiors” there. 50 families were photographed in their living room next to their television. These London sequences and the photo project were exhibited at the Camden Arts Center in December 1972 / January 1973 and published in the photo magazine “Creative Camera”. These photos were purchased in 1973 by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and in 1998 by the Holland Media Group.

This was followed by a continuous series of exhibitions and publications at home and abroad, while Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski continued to carry out photo projects and travel to take new, innovative photographs. Before that, he mainly spent months in the winter in the south of Europe or in Morocco and, in addition to landscape photos, stock photos and portraits, he also mainly made sequences. During the first few years, due to a limited budget, he traveled with a backpack and stayed in cheap, rented rooms. Then with a car and a tent.

In 1977 he bought his first camper, a Mercedes Benz 306D Westfalia, in which he could live for months at work locations.

In October 1973 he had his first solo exhibition in Paris, in the gallery of the Bibliothèque Nationale, and in November 1973 an exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

In 1974, at the invitation of Lucien Clergue, he carried out a photo project in Arles, France, where families from different social classes were photographed in their living rooms and confronted with each other. This series of photos was exhibited at the Arles Photo Festival. In 1975 he won second prize at the Triennial of the Musée d'Art Moderne in Fribourg, Switzerland.

In 1976, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski and his sequences had a large solo exhibition in 3 rooms in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, curated by curator Els Barents.

In 1977 Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski published his first photo book “Neem nou Henny”. This book showed the life of a random girl who worked on the assembly line in a cookie factory.

From 1968 onwards, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski regularly went to Paris, where he was friends with Bernard Martino, a filmmaker who makes film documentaries. He always took his most recent work with him and showed it to Jean-Claude Lemagny of the Bibliothèque Nationale and to other interested parties. For example, the French magazine ZOOM published a 20-page portfolio of his work in August 1976. In Paris he also met Harry Lunn, the important photo dealer from Washington, as well as Virginia Zabriskie and Nicholas Callaway of Galerie Zabriskie in New York. Because of these contacts, the breakthrough of Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski's work in America began in 1978. Harry Lunn from Washington purchased a large number of his sequences and on July 11, 1978, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski signed a contract with the New York/Paris gallery Zabriskie to represent his work exclusively. In March 1979, a solo exhibition of his sequences was held at Zabriskie's gallery in Paris. In April 1979 at Zabriskie's gallery in New York.

Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was asked to come to New York by Virginia Zabriskie in 1979. Nicholas Callaway, who had started a publishing house, invited him to his villa in Connecticut. This became his base for a number of years. Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski bought in the U.S. a camper and traveled for months to locations where he could shoot sequences.

The first winter he spent in Mexico, where he found ideal conditions for shooting sequences and later his VISTA photographs, was in 1979 - 1980. Numerous times he would return to the west coast of Mexico, the Baja California Peninsula, and spend working on his sequences for months, living in a camper, in total desolation.

In January 1982, Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski had an experience with Swedish actress Marike Bonnier in Puerto Escondido, Mexico, that had a profound impact on his entire life. Together they went swimming in the Pacific Ocean and were carried by the current into the towering waves of the surf. They miraculously escaped drowning.

In addition to traveling to America and Mexico to create his sequences, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski continued to carry out photo projects. He published these in the magazine Nieuwe Revu for years. Editor-in-chief Derk Sauer and head of reporting Dolf Dukker assessed his proposals for photo projects and after acceptance they were financed and published by Nieuwe Revu. For example, in 1978 he photographed life in the Jewish settlement of Ofra on the occupied West Bank, in 1979 the functioning of parliamentarians in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in 1981 in Chile the profiteers of the Pinochet dictatorship and in 1984 the application of Sharia law in Sudan and witnesses to police actions in Indonesia.

In 1983, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski published the photo book “Henny, a woman”. This was the second part about Henny's life after the photo book “Neem nou Henny” in 1977.

In March 1984, Uitgeverij Joh. Enschedé en Zonen, Haarlem, an extensive photo book published with the sequences by Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski. With a foreword written by the Art Institute of Chicago's curator of photography, David Travis. This photo book was presented with a solo exhibition at the Arnhems Gemeentemuseum in the Netherlands and at the Laurence Miller Gallery in New York. The sequences were also the subject of a major solo exhibition at the Art Institute in Chicago in April 1984.

During that period, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski realized that all possibilities with sequences had largely been realized by him and that only repetition and variations threatened. The much-feared auto-epigonism, an example of inner stagnation. He also experienced the explicit attempts to influence his work, especially from the American gallery, as an obstacle to the free development of his creativity. With a farewell exhibition at the Olympus Gallery in Amsterdam on June 30, 1985, he stopped making sequences. He also broke off business relations with his galleries. He sold his camper in the U.S. and quit the months-long work stints in Mexico.

1985 - 1990

Until then, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski did not have his own home. In 's-Hertogenbosch he rented a damp and gloomy basement for 40 Euros per month where his archive and darkroom were housed. Until 1985 he spent most of the year abroad in his camper, sometimes staying with friends but usually staying in cheap hotels. In September 1985 he decided to settle more permanently in the Netherlands and bought a 9-room building in the Derde Helmersstraat in Amsterdam, not far from the Leidseplein and the Vondelpark. The reason for settling in Amsterdam was mainly the need to intensify and complete the processing of childhood experiences. There was a wide range of psycho-therapies in Amsterdam at that time available and Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski followed a number of them over the years. In particular, the Speyer therapy and the NLP method (Neuro Linguistic Programming) had major and healing effects on him. In April 1986, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski went to India for the first time and spent some time at Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's ashram in Pune. He immersed himself in Tantra Yoga and the ideas of Bhagwan, now known as Osho. From that time on he was inspired by Bhagwan without associating himself though with the sannyasin movement.

In 1986, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was asked by Robert Pledge of the photo agency Contact Press Images to participate in the photo project “A day in the life of America”. He photographed the lives of the super-rich in Palm Beach, Florida. During that period he also carried out a large photo project for the Dutch Government Buildings Agency. At 6 locations worldwide he photographed the ascent of famous stairs, such as the Eisenstein stairs in Odessa and the stairs to the Buddhist shrine in Annaradhapura in Sri Lanka. These photo series are permanently exhibited in the stairwell of the Tax Office in Eindhoven.

In the Netherlands, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski made portraits of famous Dutch people in his photo studio in Amsterdam without showing their faces. These portraits were exhibited and published in various places and he won the “Zilveren Camera”-award with them in 1986.

Jerven Ober

For more than a year he then made a weekly portrait of an artist in the news for the Volkskrant. Later, this series was made into an exhibition that was shown in various places in the Netherlands.

In February 1988, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski exhibited his hotel room project at the Canon Image Center in Amsterdam. During the past years he had photographed the hotel rooms he stayed in during his travels. He exhibited these photos in a hotel room recreated in the gallery.

In March 1988 he published the third photo book about Henny: “Henny, 10 years in her life”. These Henny photos were also published and exhibited in magazines.

In the autumn of 1988, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski lived with the journalist/writer Angeline van den Berg for 4 months in the village of Nyakomba in northeastern Zimbabwe and followed 4 people in their daily lives. The photo project “Just Africa”. During the stay in Zimbabwe, to emphasize current events, these photos were sent to the Netherlands almost immediately after being taken by diplomatic courier and published in Nieuwe Revu. Later, in February 1990, these photos were exhibited in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

After the working period in Zimbabwe in 1988, 2 hectic years followed. There were several exhibitions, such as a retrospective exhibition in Museum de Beyerd in Breda, and he held lectures and workshops in the Netherlands and France. He published three photo books in quick succession: “Kammen”, “The first twenty years” and “Anders”. “The first twenty years” is a photo book that provides an overview of the photographic work of Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski during the period 1970 - 1990. For the photo book “Kammen”, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski photographed a large number of jewelry designers in the studio with models. designed prototypes of combs. For the photo book “Different”, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski followed three mentally handicapped people in their daily lives.

1990 - 1994

At the end of 1989, a crisis arose in Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski's long-term relationship with his partner, the journalist/writer Angeline van den Berg. After 17 years this relationship ended. In order to properly process this separation, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski decided to withdraw for a period. He rented the villa “Cala Bona” in Cadaques, Spain where he lived for a year.

During the first months he still took photos at the request of national Dutch newspaper “De Volkskrant”, but after that he wrote exclusively on the as yet unpublished manuscript “Full moon anyway”.

After returning to the Netherlands at the end of 1990, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski immediately traveled to Malawi and Mozambique for the weekly magazine Panorama to take a series of photos about refugees for a fundraising campaign in the Netherlands. After this trip, in early 1991, he left the Netherlands again. Together with the man of letters Michiel van Kempen he went to Suriname where he worked for 4 months on the photo book “Words that have deep roots” with Michiel van Kempen. For this photo book they traveled to the revolted Tucayana Indians and escaped a lynching by drunken guerrillas. He visited the Bosland Creoles deep in the jungle where the Cessna plane in which they were traveling almost collided with the Twin Otter in which Desi Bouterse was just landing. Together with the journalist Adelheid Kapteyn, he later traveled through the neighboring country Guyana to Brazil, traveling on canoes past gold seekers' camps. He got lost with Adelheid Kapteyn in the rainforest: exhausted, soaked and injured, they were eventually found by two gold seekers who took them to safety.

Back in the Netherlands, June 1991, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski started working on a new photo book about Henny, on a series about a Vietnamese boat refugee family in Leeuwarden and in Almeria, Spain, on a series of photos about inner transformation.

In October 1992, the photo book “Words that have deep roots” was published, which Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski had worked on together with Michiel van Kempen in Suriname. The photo book was presented with an exhibition of the photos at the Canon Image Center in Amsterdam.

During the winter 1992 - 1993, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski lived and worked at the Elim Mission in northeastern Zimbabwe. Due to a prolonged drought, a famine had broken out in that area. With money raised in the Netherlands, he and his friend Hans Römer financed a rescue campaign for the English doctor Roger Drew, who headed a mission hospital in eastern Zimbabwe. For three months, Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski drove a truck into the affected areas to distribute food to the starving population. He also worked on photo series about the famine and AIDS.

From 1992, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski was a board member of the professional association of photographers GKf for a number of years.

In June 1993 the new photo book about Henny was published: “Henny, a new life”. The first copy was presented to Henny by Minister Hedy d'Ancona during an exhibition of the photos in the Amsterdam Historical Museum. Henny was interviewed by Sonja Barends in her television program.

In 1993, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski collaborated with Michiel van Kempen on a new photo book: Surinamese writers in the Netherlands. Ten renowned Surinamese writers living in the Netherlands were each photographically followed for a period in their daily lives and work. These photos, together with examples of their prose or poetry, were published in the photo book “Words on the West Wind”. This photo book was presented at an exhibition in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam on May 27, 1994.

In the fall of 1993, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski traveled to Africa again. Commissioned by the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, he photographed the various aspects of AIDS in Mwanza, Tanzania, on Lake Victoria. He photographed people suffering from AIDS and dying, the truck drivers and prostitutes who spread the AIDS virus and the children left orphaned by AIDS wandering the streets. This photo series was permanently presented as an AV production in the Africa department in the Tropenmuseum.

Confronting the horrors of famine in the winter of 1992-1993 in Zimbabwe and the AIDS epidemic in Tanzania in the fall of 1993 plunged Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski into a deep depression. As a way to overcome this depression, he came up with the photo project “World of Love”. A family was photographed in 4 places around the world with the aim of showing how people love, care for and care about each other. For the project “World of Love”, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski lived with the Japanese artist Mayumi Nakazaki, his new life partner, in a village in the Sahara in Senegal in March 1994 and photographed the love and care in a Wolof family. He organized this project “World of Love” together with the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam and 3 fellow photographers were invited to photograph the 3 other families. Koen Wessing went to Colombia, Corinne Noordenbosch photographed a family in the Netherlands and Catrien Ariëns a family in Bangladesh. On October 6, 1994, “World of Love” was presented with an exhibition in the Tropenmuseum. The photos were also published in Vrij Nederland, Marie-Claire and Foto and KRO television devoted a program to them. In March 1995, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski won the “Zilveren Camera”-award with his series from “World of Love”.

1995 - 1997

In 1985, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski went to Mexico for the last time to make his sequences. At the end of 1994, he decided to return to the sequencing beaches of Baja California, Mexico, as an experiment. He was curious to see what would happen after 10 years of growth and leaving the sequences behind. He rented a camper and traveled to El Tiple, the wide bay where he had shot countless sequences on the beach between 1979 and 1985. Storms had changed the landscape over the years and the former roads and paths in the rarely trodden area had disappeared. It turned out not to be possible to reach El Tiple with the camper, but the confrontation with the infinity of desert and ocean in combination with the desolation and loneliness was also too overwhelming for Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski after 10 years. He set up camp at a location where American surfers also camped, Punta Conejo, and worked there at the beginning of what would become the VISTA series.

Back in the Netherlands, he put together an exhibition from all his photos that he had taken in Africa in previous years, entitled “African harmonies”. With this he concluded a processing process of all his experiences in Africa. “African harmonies” showed human happiness and harmony in addition to human misery. This exhibition opened on May 24, 1995 in Galerie de Melkweg in Amsterdam and was subsequently exhibited in various other places, such as the Noorderlicht Photo Festival in Groningen.

In June 1995, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski returned to Mexico, three months after his previous trip. All the material from that first trip was basically useless: it was just starters and experiments. Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski now took other equipment and films with him. He had determined that the new work in color and large format would be the most convincing. He stayed in simple accommodation on the remote rancho of the Gonzales family near the deserted beaches of the east coast of Baja California. He worked there for 2 months until the summer heat drove him away. The photos from that second working period were purchased by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris for their collection in September 1995.

On October 3, 1995, an exhibition opened in the Galerie 2.5 x 4.5 in Amsterdam on the occasion of Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski's 25 years of working as a professional/autonomous photographer.

In October 1995, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski went to Africa again and made a report in Angola about Dutch soldiers, landmine victims and the consequences of the Civil War.

At the end of 1995, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski traveled to Japan for the first time. In June 1993 he met Mayumi Nakazaki, a Japanese artist. On January 9, 1996, they were married in traditional Buddhist fashion at the Shintu Temple in Miyazaki, Japan. Later in Amsterdam, on June 9, 1996, they were legally married in the same room where Queen Beatrix and Prince Claus were married.

In March 1996, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski continued his work on the VISTA series in Mexico. This third trip started with the purchase of a camper in the United States and preparing it to live in a remote location for a long time. On this journey he did manage to reach El Triple and work in solitude for two months, as he did in the sequence time.

In July 1996 he returned to the village of Nyakomba in Zimbabwe, where he had photographed four people for a number of months in 1988. Japan was carrying out a major irrigation project in Nyakomba and Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski made a photo report about it, for which he would return to Nyakomba several times.

In October 1996, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski left for Mexico again and worked for 5 months on his VISTA series. In June 1997, his VISTA photographs were exhibited for the first time at an exhibition in the gallery of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. In the fall of 1997 he worked again in Mexico for two months. There was now so much new work that the VISTA series was published in book form on February 20, 1998 by Uitgeverij FOCUS. A large exhibition of VISTA work was opened in the De Beyerd Museum in Breda on February 21, 1998, where the works were exhibited in large formats, from 1 x 1 meter to 1.80 x 3.60 meters.

1998 - 1999

In May 1998, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski dismantled his darkroom. Until then, he had always developed his black-and-white films himself and printed the negatives. But the rise of digitalization in photography opened up new possibilities. Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski purchased scanners and Apple computers and from then on worked digitally and often via the internet.

Shortly after the successful presentation of the project “World of Love” in October 1994, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski came up with a sequel: the photo project “World of Energy”. This project should show how energy was produced and consumed at 20 locations worldwide. Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski founded a Foundation for "World of Energy", formed a Recommendation Committee and invited the photographer Taco Anema to participate in the project. He then found financing for “World of Energy”, which became the largest photo project ever in the history of Dutch photography. In April 1998 he traveled to the first destination of the “World of Energy” project. In Uganda he photographed a woman who collected wood from the forest and sold it on the market. He subsequently worked at locations in Namibia, China, Nepal, Peru, Brazil, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Japan and Bolivia.

In between, in the autumn of 1998, he also worked for a period in Mexico on his VISTA series, which were exhibited in 1999 at Galerie de Melkweg in Amsterdam and the Noord-Brabants Museum in 's-Hertogenbosch.

In October 1999 the last trip for the “World of Energy” project was made: photographing muscle energy. A taxi cyclist in Manila, the Philippines, was followed for two weeks. VISTA photos were also worked on in Mexico twice in 1999: two months from April and three months from November.

In September 1999, a new period began in which Henny was followed photographically by Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski in her daily life. The Henny project started in 1976 and has resulted in 4 photo books about her so far.

Another development in the autumn of 1999 was the signing of the contract with Galerie Baudoin Lebon in Paris. This leading gallery acquired the exclusive rights to solely represent the autonomous photography of Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski.

In May 2000 the photo book “World of energy” was published. An extensive book as a result of the initiative he took in 1996. On June 13, 2000, the exhibition of the photo project “World of Energy” opened in the Museon in The Hague. Minister of Economic Affairs A. Jorritsma presented the first copies of the book to the participants in the project from Kuwait and Nepal.

2000 - 2005

In September 2000, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski left the Netherlands permanently. The direct reason was the contractual agreement with Galerie Baudoin Lebon in Paris, which provided new access to the international art market. But the indirect reasons for leaving the Netherlands had been going on for some time. It was increasingly experienced that the climate and context in the photography world in the Netherlands could not lead to fruitful results. Due to the small scale in the Netherlands, the photography world was dominated by only a few people. These were in positions without ever being held accountable for their policies, which resulted in a subjective, narrowing and one-sided presentation of photography. The question that increasingly arose was whether the photography climate in the Netherlands was still fertile to stay in and to continue to grow as a photographer with the work. Especially due to the many contacts abroad, where much more professionalism and respect was experienced, the conclusion had to be drawn that the tragic mediocrity created by the museum framework of Dutch photography was no longer a favorable environment in which to work further. A new base was found in Cadaques, Spain. Cadaques is known because Salvador Dali lived and worked there for many years. Garcia Lorca, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray and Pablo Picasso also lived and worked in Cadaques. In the year 2000, many artists lived in the village and people with an artistic connection liked to come to make contacts and experience the special artistic atmosphere in Cadaques. In the village, Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski purchased the monumental building “La casa del diputado”, from which the photographic practice was continued. Meanwhile, the marriage to Mayumi Nakazaki had ended in 2001.

As a follow-up to the “World of energy” project, the “World of little heroes” project was launched in March 2001. physically challenged children worldwide” was conceived and set up. This photo project shows a 9 year old disabled girl in Toronto, Canada and a 9 year old disabled girl in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The children are physically disabled and the social and medical care provided was documented. The aim was to raise awareness for physically disabled children worldwide. Samantha in Toronto, Canada, was followed for weeks in June and September 2002 and Hasina in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in July 2003. The photo project “World of little heroes; physically challenged children worldwide” was presented as an exhibition in September 2004 at the Photo Festival “Visa pour l'image” in Perpignan, in July 2004 at Galerie Fait et Cause in Paris and in December 2004 at the Photo Festival Chobi Mela III in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Several magazines worldwide published this photo series.

In July 2001, the VISTA photos were exhibited during the Bienne photo biennial in Switzerland. On January 16, 2002, a solo exhibition of the monumental VISTA photos opened at Galerie Baudoin Lebon in Paris.

In August 2001, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski gave photography workshops in Zimbabwe and Namibia to regional photojournalists and photographed again in Nyakomba, the village where he had carried out the photo project “Just Africa” in 1988.

On November 17, 2001 there was the opening of the exhibition “Henny himself” in Galerie de Melkweg, Amsterdam and the presentation of the fifth photo book in this series. This fifth photo book “Henny himself” documented 24 years of Henny's life. Once again, the “Henny” project received a lot of publicity: interviews on TV and for various radio programs, publications in national and regional newspapers and a portfolio in Vrij Nederland.

In the summer of 2002, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski worked with various models in the mountains around Cadaques on his Punta Prima series.

In the winter of 2002 - 2003 he returned to the deserted beaches of Baja California, Mexico, where he had started making his sequences in 1979 and where he later took his VISTA photographs. A new step in the development of his conceptual work was making videos. He also spent months there in the winter of 2003 - 2004 and 2004 - 2005 making new conceptual videos.

In 1988, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski devised and executed a photo project entitled: “The most beautiful people in the Netherlands”. Advertisements had been placed in newspapers calling on people to respond if they believed they were the most beautiful. Those who responded were visited at home and documented. The results were published in the magazine Panorama and the photo book “The First Twenty Years”. In the spring of 2004, Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski decided to carry out this photo project again, this time worldwide. New title: “The most beautiful people in the world”. In April 2004, people who had read the advertisement and believed they were the most beautiful in the world were documented in Sao Paolo, Brazil. In August 2004 in Namibia. In February 2005 in Mexico. In March 2005 in San Francisco, USA. In June 2005 in Barcelona, Spain. In July 2005 in Paris and France. In August 2005 in Poland.

2005 - 2010

On December 13, 2005, after living and working in Cadaques, Spain, this village was abandoned. There were several reasons for this. More and more Cadaques had changed from an interesting village with many artists, bohemians and intellectuals to a village focused solely on the tourist industry. The artists left and the project developers and small businesses took their place to completely dominate the village.

Another reason for leaving Cadaques was the desire to detach. To live a life with as few possessions as possible. To want to travel permanently. Therefore, all possessions in Cadaques were sold. The extensive archive went partly to the Print Room of Leiden University and partly, as far as the negatives were concerned, to family in Nowy Sacz in Poland. Cadaques was left with only a half-full suitcase.

Since then, part of the time has been spent in a camper in the United States and Mexico.

In January 2006, an extensive publication of 20 pages of the photo project "The most beautiful people in the world" appeared in Le Monde2, the weekend supplement of the French newspaper Le Monde. A selection of the photos that had been taken in the different countries up to that point. In May 2006 the photo project "The most beautiful people in the world" was carried out in Iran. In June 2006 in Poland. In December 2007 in China and in March 2008 in India.

In 2007, Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski took photographs on the theme of energy in Tokyo, Japan, and California, USA for "Lumen", a NUON publication.

During the winter months we returned to two locations in Mexico, El Tiple and Punta Boca del Salado, where much of the autonomous conceptual photography had been made in the previous years. A series called the "PS series" was worked on and these images were published in a photo book published in July 2008.

In October 2008 a new photo project was started entitled "How the world loves". A website where visitors were invited to contribute by making available a photo that showed how they love.

In May 2009, workshops were given to photo academies in various cities in the Netherlands. Portfolio discussions where a photographer had a personal meeting with Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski. Aspects of the work were examined in an in-depth conversation. To find new openings and enthusiasm.

The photo book "Sequences: the ultimate selection" was published on November 29, 2009. Presented by Rommert Boonstra during the opening of an exhibition with sequences at Galerie Baudelaire in Antwerp, Belgium. A photo book that took a year to create with designer Henrik Barends and publisher Anneke Pijnappel to make a well-considered selection of all sequences that had ever been made.

2011 - 2023

In March 2011, a new photo project was started: "What the world has never seen".

In 8 cities on 5 continents, people were asked to show what no one should have ever seen of them. In Kampala (Uganda), Amsterdam, Jerusalem, New York, Moscow, Beijing, Istanbul and Buenos Aires (Argentina). This photo project is about intimacy and privacy and that is why the results could only be seen on a website with restrictive access, exhibitions for which one had to acquire the key to the entrance door to the exhibition space and an exclusive photo book in an edition of only 200 copies. of a lock. Only the owner of this special book determines who can see its contents, in accordance with the concept of the project: intimacy and privacy. "What the world has never seen" was completed in July 2013 with the publication of the photo book and with exhibitions in the various participating cities.

During his career as a photographer, Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski has written frequently about photography. For example, in the 1980s he was a columnist for the photography magazine "Focus".

For two years he published a story every day on his blog "The life of a pioneering photographer", which now has more than 250,000 readers. At the beginning of 2011, he became a columnist for the international photography website photozone-10.com

Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski devised the theme "Keeping animals in a traditional way" for an anniversary book by the Van Hessen company from Rotterdam (www.vanhessen.com). Before that, in May 2012, a woman in a small village in southwest China was documented for three weeks still raising pigs in the traditional way. In July 2012, a traditional sheep herder on the Isle of Lewis, one of the Hebrides in northwest Scotland, was followed for three weeks. The anniversary book, entitled "Gut Feeling" was produced in an edition of 4,000 copies but is not available in bookstores.

 Angus McKenzie, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Jinma Wei uit Lao Zhai, China.

Documenting Henny again began in August 2011. This "Henny" project had started in 1975 and by now she had been followed and photographed for 36 years in her life. This time she and her family were followed photographically for 13 months, which resulted in a sixth photo book entitled "Henny. It's quite bad". The texts in this book were by de Volkskrant journalist Marjon Bolwijn. Uitgeverij Lecturis, Eindhoven, released this book on February 7, 2013 with exhibitions, presentations and symposia in the BKKC in Tilburg and De Burcht in Amsterdam. This Henny book was nominated for the Dutch Doc Photo Award.

In March 2012 there was an exhibition with a book in the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, entitled "The Dutch Photo Book since 1945". In this exhibition and in the book, attention is paid to the Henny books and the sequence books.

In August 2013, all negatives by Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski were also included in the archives of Leiden University and determined to be cultural heritage.

In November 2013 an exhibition of the project "What the world has never seen" at the Centro Cultural San Martin in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A cube was placed in the museum in which the project was presented. However, one had to have a key to open the door that gave access to the exhibition space. Hundreds of keys were distributed to customers in the city by sponsors, among others.

In 2014 and the following years, he participated in many group exhibitions in, among others, the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam, the Hague Photo Museum and the Amsterdam Center for Photography.

In 2016 I came up with a photo project to find a couple somewhere in the world whose wife should be called Eva and the husband Adam. It seemed an impossible task until, to a great surprise, it turned out that a couple with those names lived in Soest, the Netherlands. They have been followed for a long period of time in their daily lives with a series of photos that show how happy and harmonious this family is. Published in the daily Algemeen Dagblad, among others.

In 2017, fascinated by unorthodox ways to create interesting photo series in which the photographer applies as few of his own criteria as possible, I came up with the photo project “The man in the heart of America”. Scientists have determined the geographic center of the US: somewhere in the hills of South Dakota. I traveled there and looked for who lived closest to there. This turned out to be a husband and wife with a cattle ranch. Followed them photographically for a few weeks.

In the same spirit the project “The Extraterrestrial Highway”. In the American state of Nevada there is a long road of hundreds of kilometers through a desert that is known for many people making UFO sightings. I made a series of stops every 10 kilometers and took a photo at that point. To understand what chance, perhaps influenced by extraterrestrials, could create. And to find out what kind of quality photography that would result in.

Both projects can be seen on this website as a video show with sound.

In 2018 I spent several months in the Netherlands to make the seventh book about Henny. Published in 2019: “Henny. I'm not there yet." Which will probably complete this project.

In 2018 there was an interview with me by TV personality Sarah Marijnissen for Dutch national television, which resulted in hundreds of responses. The interview can still be seen on the internet and reactions are still received every week.

In 2018, while in the Netherlands, I gave a 4-week workshop to about 15 participants on conceptual, creative photography. The concept was to combine it with classes in “Mindfullness”. In the morning there were sessions by Mindfullness therapist Wineke van Aken, in the afternoon sessions on conceptual, creative photography.

I have regularly given these types of workshops over the past 25 years.

In 2019 I wrote and published the first part of an autobiography: “The man who jumped over his shadow”. A candid account that explains a lot about how my later life unfolded.

In 2019, in Paris at Galerie Baudoin Lebon, the foundation was laid for an important innovation in his conceptual photography. The next step was taken with the sequences by conceiving and executing them as three-dimensional objects.

This new development led to exhibitions and especially purchases by collections and collectors. The new works are unique and are distinguished by their originality, as were the sequences in the 70s and 80s.

All his time and energy is now devoted to this 3-dimensional photography. The publication platforms and financial support for his documentary worldwide photo projects has virtually disappeared.

In 2023, the extensive photo book “3D sequences 2020 - 2023” was published with 2 different covers in 4 languages with more than 50 images.

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