Thomas Halaczinsky
Filmmaker - Photographer - Writer
Thomas Halaczinsky is a German/American film producer and documentary filmmaker who was born in Germany and has been residing in New York City since 1991. Beside his work in film and television he is an accomplished award-winning photographer and published author.
Throughout his career he has produced internationally co-produced feature films, directed non-fiction films broadcasted around the world and shown at international film festivals. His work has received several national and international awards.
Thematically his work often focuses on the relationship between people and places. For more than 20 years he documented how Margot Friedlander - who as a young Jewish woman survived Nazi Germany in hiding - at the age of 82 started to face her own story, beginning in a memoir writing class at the 92Y in New York. His film “Don’t call it Heimweh” (2004) was based on Margot’s writing and her first journey back to Berlin 57 years after she had left Germany. The film opened the Jewish Film Festival in Berlin, 2005. He followed up with "Late Return", 2010 and "Arrived - Margot Friedlaender, Berlin", 2021.
In 1996 he won an ACE award for his contribution to the EMMY-awarded film "Calling the Ghost."
“Archipelago New York” his photographic and literary logbook of a 3000 nautical mile expedition into the island world of New York by sailboat was published by Schiffer Books, 2018. The photographic series featured in the book received an honorable mention at the Tokyo International Photo Award 2016. His series "Facing the Sea" was nominated in the category "seascapes" by the Fine Arts Photography Awards 2018-19 in the competition Photographer of the year.
Loosely based on his book he wrote and directed a three-part documentary series "Archipelago New York" (Inselwelt New York). The films were commissioned by German national broadcaster ZDF and European Network ARTE. They were released in Europe in 2021 and are slated to be released in the US in 2022.
Part one was an official selection at the International Ocean Film Festival 2022 in San Francisco and won “Best Science Film” at the Blue water Film Festival, San Diego, and an Excellence Award at the “Nature without Borders Film Festival.
Thomas has also extensively produced and directed content for brand- and product communication for companies like Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Ferrari, Rolex, and others.
What is FLUXUSPICS
Fluxuspics is more play than program, invented as the name for my Instagram feed it has merged into a curating idea, setting up online exhibitions and a shop, coming soon.
Growing up in the 1970s in Germany the idea of Fluxus was, if not the counterpart of Pop Art, an even less commercial and in some ways more political version of a similar idea.
While Fluxus never became an art movement, it was very much an alternative to what academically was defined as art. Fluxus emphasized on a democratic and open idea of art with everybody invited to participate or as Joseph Beuys declared: “Everybody is an artist”.
For me the idea of finding meaning in simple images through composition and viewpoint has been a guiding principle for my photography. Images like haikus tell complex stories. Each picture is hinting at what happened right before the moment was frozen in time or anticipates its future.
Photography to me as a visual artist and filmmaker captures reality and at the same time creates a new reality. The image itself takes on a life on its own, telling its own story. To me it’s all about storytelling, and many of my images are imaginary tales, stills from movies never shot, while others are documents of inner journeys.
Exhibitions
2018
Kathryn Markel Gallery, Bridgehampton – Lost and Found ‘In the Cloud’
Group show
December 29th, 2018 – Jan 13, 2019
Alex Ferrone Gallery, Cutchogue, Fair Winds, Photographs by Onne van der Wal, Thomas Halaczinsky and Mark Testa
September 22 - November 4, 2018
Waterfront Museum Brooklyn, New York – Solo Exhibition “Archipelago New York”
June 28- July 21
VSOP, Greenport New York – “In Search of” Group Show, mixed media
May 26 – July 9th
Alex Ferrone Gallery, Cutchogue, New York Spring into Summer – The Print Edition, May 19 – July 22
Alex Ferrone Gallery, Cutchogue, New York– Spring into Collecting Exhibit
April 12 – May 13
Alex Ferrone Gallery, Cutchogue, New York– Fair Wind exhibition September 22nd, Oct 28, 2018
2017
Alex Ferrone Gallery, Cutchogue Water – Small Works 2017 nationally juried exhibition, November 25 – January 7, 2018
North Fork Art Collective, Greenport Community Art Show Friday October 20 - Sunday October 22
2016
Gallery Im Hafen Rummelsburg, Berlin, Germany “Bitteres Wasser” Group Show
08. Juli bis 29. September 2016