Hasselblad Masters

Volume 7: Enlighten

Marek Würfl's eerie yet nostalgic portraits take the viewer back, evoking hidden memories and emotions from childhood. For Würfl, the series is partly autobiographical, representing friends, moments, and dreams from his childhood. While created through a personal lens, the series also speaks to the viewer, connecting them back to their own childhood.

"As a child, we have childhood heroes, sometimes it's characters from movies or books, and these heroes influence the development of our own character, creativity, and imagination. It shapes us into who we are today."

But Marek's childhood heroes extended beyond the page of a book. Growing up, Marek's father was once away for military training. "I missed him a lot. When he came home, I used to wear the exact military cap featured in the picture. It's a poignant memory. Maybe someone else as a boy, has this same recollection of wearing his father's cap."

Marek not only incorporates moments from his childhood into the images, but when choosing subjects for this series, Würfl aimed to highlight the subject's individuality, sometimes finding surprising parallels between the character he creates in his images and the child playing the part. "From the first moment I saw Šimon during casting, I thought he could wear a paper hat or hold something made of paper. But I didn't have a concrete image of what it would be." As Marek talked with Šimon's parents, he learned Šimon loves to fold origami. "That was such a strong moment for me. It was such a coincidence it seemed like fate, and gave this connection and depth between Šimon as a model and the character in the portrait."

Würful also began artistic pursuits as a young boy. At a young age, Würfl was drawn to painting. His many influences for his photography range from Renaissance art to pop surrealism. As for his own style, he categorizes it most akin to magical realism "The portraits are stylized in such a way that the images go beyond a picture of a model and instead depict a character and world all its own." In Marek's almost eerie set-up, everything else is stripped away. He uses strobe and natural lighting for different images, but even with natural lighting, there is never an indication of time, day, or location. The characters almost exist in a void. By creating this absence, Marek's work leaves room for viewers to fill in the blanks with their personal history, emotions, and memories.

Marek achieves minimalistic yet dynamic duality by being incredibly particular when it comes to colour. Würfl shoots with reproduction low gain applying a contrast curve to the image. "It gives me the opportunity to capture the softness and transitions in the skin tones, as well as achieve the dreamy and nostalgic, painterly feel I am after." Skintone is at the centre of Marek Würfl's process and workflow. With other cameras, he spends hours working to achieve the perfect tonality, contrast, and colour, but with Hasselblad, he has found the process much simpler.

"I can't express how I feel when looking at images captured by the X2D. It's so tangible. You almost feel as if the person in the image will move slightly, look at you, or blink. It's something unique that I've never experienced with any other camera."

About Marek Würfl

Marek Würfl is a Slovak portrait photographer and 2021 Hasselblad Master winner. Würfl uses his appreciation for fine art in a variety of mediums to inspire his painting-esque portraits. His work teeters into eerie and uncanny, with minimalistic backgrounds and a quiet tone. With an advanced approach to colours and lighting, he brings out the individuality of his subjects.