Henri Kisielewski
Non Fiction

PHOTO OXFORD OPEN CALL 2025: RUNNER UP

“To give truth the colour and narrative force of fiction,” this was Truman Capote’s ambition when he wrote In Cold Blood, the true account of a quadruple homicide in 1960s Kansas. This is the starting point for Non Fiction, a work of lyrical documentary that explores the porous boundary between fact and fiction in photography.

The premise is simple: is it possible to photograph the world as it is - through chance encounters and local news stories - and create a series that feels like fiction?

Since its beginnings, photography has had a complex relation to truth: even the most ‘objective’ portraits will necessarily involve decisions relating to location, light and pose. In Non Fiction, this tension is pushed to its extreme through a variety of visual strategies, deployed to blur the lines. In the current context of conspiracy theories, fake news and AI generated imagery it is more pertinent than ever to reflect on our relationship with reality and how it is mediated through images.

In Non Fiction images based on chance encounters accumulate and coalesce, forming a narrative that is fluid and multidirectional. It is up to the audience to interpret this narrative, to find keys into it. Framed in this way, daily life is transformed: every window hides secrets, every person becomes a protagonist, every object becomes a clue or a piece of evidence.

It's all true, it's all false, but one thing is certain: truth is at least as strange as fiction.

Having won Photo Marseille's Prix Maison Blanche 2023, this project was published as my first book by Le Bec en l’Air in 2024. It features an original essay by Mariama Attah, Associate Curator at the Deutsche Börse Foundation, and was selected by Clément Chéroux as one of his ten books of the year. 

Henri Kisielewski is a self-taught French-British photographer based in London. He is interested in the role of images in contemporary society and the porous boundary between fact and fiction in documentary media.

Henri’s work has been recognised and supported by several grants and awards, such as Photo Marseille festival’s Prix Maison Blanche (2023), Planches Contact Festival’s Young Talent Prize (2022) and The Guardian’s Joan Wakelin Bursary (2019). His work has also been shortlisted for prestigious grants and awards including Prix Élysée 2025, Grand Prix Images Vevey 2025 and PhMuseum Grant 2024. It has been widely published in The Guardian, Fotofilmic, Fisheye Magazine, British Journal of Photography, among others.

Henri has exhibited in group shows and festivals internationally - Réseau LUX #1 (France), Les Franciscaines museum (France), Festival InCadaqués (Spain), Averard Hotel (UK), Burlington Arcade (UK), and Festival Photo Marseille (France). Henri was a guest artist at the 2025 Villa Pérochon residency in Niort (France) and was recently nominated by PhotoIreland to join the FUTURES Photography network.

Winner of the 2023 Prix Maison Blanche, Henri’s first book 'Non Fiction' was published by Le Bec en l’Air in 2024. It features an original essay by Mariama Attah, Associate Curator at the Deutsche Börse Foundation, and was selected by Clément Chéroux as one of his ten books of the year. Henri was assistant to Olivia Arthur (Magnum Photos) from 2019 to 2022.

https://www.henrikisielewski.com/

Insta: @______henri