Photography is the most personal and permanent artistic medium – a picture capturing a moment, forever frozen in time. It records both a physical reality and one individual’s interpretation of our human condition.

In his all-to-brief life, Polish photographer Marcin Schulz (1971 – 2011) left behind a body of work documenting a stark, stunning, and soulful interpretation of the home he made in New York City, including gritty street scenes of gang bangers; expressive young models looking for a break; Polish life in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; the devastation following the terrorist attacks of 9.11; and what is perhaps the most comprehensive pictorial representation of the Hassidic Community in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, recorded from 1996-1998.

Born in Wroclaw Poland in 1971, Marcin Schulz grew up behind the iron curtain in a city whose liberating beauty was equally contradicted by the stifling repression of a Communist regime.  Marcin yearned to think, breathe, and express himself freely. In 1995, he moved to the United States, settling in the yet-to-be gentrified area of Williamsburg, which provided space for a photography studio, free-wheeling street life that captured his eye, and the pulsating energy of a diverse community, including the world’s largest Hassidic Jewish community outside of Israel.

Marcin was immediately drawn to the insular Hassidic people, whose lifestyle was reminiscent of the private old-world notions of Poland. Large families deferring to a protective hierarchy were initially fearful of the young man with a camera asking to photograph them. Remarkably, Marcin’s disarming smile and quiet charisma dissolved all suspicion, and he was welcomed into the Hassidim’s walled-off world to spend two years on the inside capturing unscripted moments of their everyday life.

Marcin’s work would be shown in galleries in New York and Poland, but he passed away in 2011, before it could receive the respect and renown it deserves.

Marcin Schulz is survived by his wife, Michele, and son Griffin. His daughter Eva, who appears in some of his pictures, passed away in 2019. We believe Marcin is photographing Eva today in a much better place.