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SUMMARY:Reservoir: Photography, Loneliness and Well-Being exhibition
UID:https://instytutpolski.pl/newyork/2026/01/27/reservoir-a-new-photographic-generator-to-address-loneliness-as-a-global-crisis/
LOCATION:
DTSTAMP:20260129
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20260129
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Warsaw:20260314
DESCRIPTION:Thursday, January 29 – Saturday, March 14, 2026 Los Angeles Center of
Photography252 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CAFree and open to the
public
Thursday, January 29, 2026, 6:00–8:00 PMOpening receptionRSVP here
Reservoir: Loneliness, Well-Being and Photography is a new and innovative
photographic generator, designed to create a shared repository of responses
to the global loneliness crisis through visual storytelling.
Much like reservoirs regulate the flow and storage of water, providing a
sense of stability for their communities, this invitation-only
collaborative project incubates new approaches through creative practice,
research, and engagement.
Extending and amplifying LACP’s commitment to nurturing well-being and
connectedness through visual storytelling, this multi-year project brings
together artists, mentors, art centers, curators, publishers, mental health
professionals, and technology innovators to incubate and develop
groundbreaking projects, anchored in the meeting point of visual
technologies, psychological and physical well-being and the ebbs and flows
of human connection.
The new exhibition at the Los Angeles Center of Photography brings together
over 40 artists to explore the global crisis of loneliness through visual
storytelling, including Ada Zielińska, a Warsaw-based visual artist
working with photography, video, and installation. Conceived as a
collaborative, multi-year project, the exhibition creates a shared space
for artistic responses focused on human connection and well-being.
Zielińska’s practice centers on destruction as a prerequisite for
rebirth, using real and staged catastrophic events as a form of
self-therapy and inquiry. Working within post-photography, she constructs
carefully staged environments that invite reflection on the tension between
beauty, collapse, and recovery. A recipient of the Futures Photography
Programme award, she has exhibited internationally, including Ujazdowski
Castle in Warsaw, the Capa Center in Budapest, and a solo presentation at
PhotoBrussels.
In the Reservoir exhibition catalog, Ada Zielińska reflects on her
artistic practice: "There’s no real difference between melting cheese and
melting a headlamp. Both are pleasing. Both are intriguing. In both cases,
the consequences are unknown. We call destruction dangerous, but it’s
fear that makes it so. Controlled, it’s as satisfying as creation—which
it is. My father was a firefighter. When I moved out, we reconnected by
burning cars on weekends. That’s when I started to think of myself as an
artist—and, strangely, that’s when my father started to be proud. I am
a visual artist working primarily with photography, video, and
installation. My main area of interest revolves around destruction as a
prerequisite for rebirth—in this regard, my practice serves as a form of
self-therapy. My creative approach centers on catastrophic events, whether
experienced in real life or staged—not merely to document them, but to
explore their aesthetics and the emotions they evoke. I'm somewhere in
between a love letter and a crash report."
Ada Zielińska, a Warsaw-based visual artist working in photography, video,
and installation, explores destruction as a form of self-therapy and a
prerequisite for rebirth, creating both real and staged catastrophic events
that examine aesthetics and emotion, while constructing photogenic
environments that engage viewers in the tension between beauty,
destruction, and emotional response; she studied Media Arts at the Academy
of Fine Arts in Warsaw (2015) and earned an MFA from the Institute of
Creative Photography at the University of Silesia in Opava (2020), has
exhibited widely in Poland and abroad—including solo and institutional
shows in Belgium, Warsaw, Budapest, Paris, and Kraków—and has received
multiple grants and recognitions, with her work featured in publications
such as the British Journal of Photography, Vice, Over Journal, Uncertain
States/Europe, Arte TV, and Fisheye Magazine.”
Background:
In 2000, political scientist Robert Putnam suggested America is becoming a
nation of loners, who lose trust in their institutions as they retreat from
life in community to solitude. And it seems things have only gotten worse
in the decades that followed. A study published in 2023 examined 1649 adult
participants from Norway, the UK, and Australia, and highlighted a direct
relation between time spent on social media and an increased feeling of
loneliness. Paradoxically, the more technologically connected we are, the
more alone and isolated we feel. The Covid pandemic, political and social
polarization, global wars, and economic shifts— those external factors
contribute to feelings of isolation and detachment. These issues are
further exasperated in a place like Los Angeles, where physical
topographies, distances, and access to transportation impact emotional
landscapes and contribute to a sense of isolation.
About the Los Angeles Center of Photography:From its home in DTLA, LACP
enables communities to capture, interpret, and reimagine the individual and
cultural conflicts and the creative combustion that shape Los Angeles and
influence the world. Each year, LACP offers hundreds of workshops and
classes of all levels and genres online and in-person, it exhibits the work
of over 300 photographers in virtual and in-person gallery exhibitions,
which are free and open to the public. Additionally, LACP partners with
multiple organizations to offer photography and visual literacy education
for youth and children in underserved communities.
Participating Artists:
Lynne Breitfeller (NJ), Annette LeMay Burke (CA), Julia Buteux (RI),
Chung-Ping Cheng (CA), Cathy Cone (VT), David Ellis (CA), Allyson Ely (CA),
Nancy Farese (CA), Leslie Gleim (HI), Bootsy Holler (CA), Rohina Hoffman
(CA), Valerie Horvath (Wash), Cynthia Johnston (Mass) , Sandra Klein (CA),
Ana Leal (Brazil), Dana Long Kim (Wash), T. Chick McClure (CA), Lisa McCord
(CA), Christina McFaul (CA), Stacy Mehrfar (NY), Diane Meyer (CA), Joan
Morse (Wash) , Karen Duncan Pape (VA), Gillian Peckham (Wash), Carl Pfirman
(CA), Olivia Phare (AZ), Wendy Ploger (AZ), Mario Rodriguez (FL), Rosalie
Rosenthal (KY), Jacque Rupp (CA), Patricia Sandler (CA), Asiya al-Sharabi
(VA/Egypt), Lisa Wissner-Slivka (WA), Elisabeth Smolarz (NY), Donna
Tramontozzi (Chile), MG Vander Elst (NY), Junko Yokota (Ill), Ada
Zielińska (POL)
Pictures by © Josie V Photography and © Chris Gamez 
This exhibition is supported by Angeles Art Fund and the Polish Cultural
Institute New York.  It is part of the 2026 Hyper SoCal initiative,
supporting nonprofit and municipal art venues for working artists in
Southern California.
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