happiness is not
only a dream.
My name is Karolina. I am a Polish-born, New Zealand – based award-winning photographer and visual artist. My creative practice blends photography with handcrafted materials such as wood, encaustic wax, ceramics, and natural dyes to explore themes of identity, transformation, and human connection.
My work carries a painterly, tactile quality, where photography meets object and emotion becomes form.
Growing up without many material things in a country fighting communism, we created memories that have warmed me over the years.
I believe these experiences built the foundations for my soul, and the way I look at the world today.
My work drifts between stillness and motion, where photography becomes less about capturing a place and more about feeling it.
Through my moving landscapes, I explore the quiet language of nature — light that dissolves, forms that blur, moments that refuse to stay still. These works are not records of what was seen, but impressions of what was felt. Soft, atmospheric, and often abstract, they invite the viewer to slow down and step into a space where memory and landscape begin to merge.
Beyond the lens, my practice extends into tactile worlds. I work with wood and ceramics, supported by a fluid mix of tactile and experimental processes, where curiosity leads, and materials are free to transform. There is something grounding in shaping with my hands — a dialogue between control and surrender.
At its core, my work is about connection — to nature, to emotion, and to the quiet, often unseen spaces within ourselves.
Achievements
- NZIPP Grand Master of Photography
- An accredited professional photographer
- 2026, 2025 & 2024 New Zealand Professional Creative Photographer of the Year
- 2025 Finalist, New Zealand Professional Portrait Creative Photographer of the Year
- Representative of the NZIPP 2025 Highest Scoring Region (Wellington)
- 2023 New Zealand Professional Commercial Photographer of the Year
- 2020 New Zealand Professional Expressive Photographer of the Year
- 2020 NZIPP Highest scoring Expressive category entry
- Representative of the NZIPP 2016 Highest Scoring Region (Wellington)
