Save the date: Life on Assignment

Photography assignments – especially in the world of fashion – serve as a kind of backstage pass. They open doors to spaces usually out of reach: behind the runway shows, inside VIP hotel rooms, private meetings, and the fleeting moments “between” staged events.

These spaces are temporary by design, yet fashion weeks return every few months, rhythmically and predictably. Cities change, but over time the surroundings become familiar: the same faces, recognisable gestures, recurring routines. After a few trips, maps become unnecessary. In every city, you find a corner bar, a favourite bookstore, and your own route from hotel to the show. Out of the logistical chaos and time pressure, a new routine emerges – makeshift, yet surprisingly enduring. New friendships form, rooted in shared experiences and the rhythm of travel. The temporary begins to feel permanent. Photographic work takes place in a world that is not quite home, yet gradually forms its own orbit of familiarity.

As with all homes, what appears in magazines often looks very different from reality. In Life on Assignment, Dąbrowski captures his daily life within these “not-quite-home” spaces. His work is attentive and discreet, documenting not the spectacle of fashion itself, but its margins: the moments when the production world reveals its theatricality, and bodies and emotions seek comfort.

For years, Dąbrowski has observed and translated this state of suspension into a photographic language where apparent spontaneity never means superficiality. In his images, business travel is not just a route between cities, but a way of existing in the nomadic world of assignments.