interview with MARCIN LIMINOWICZ
How did your interest in photography as media of choice start?
Iʼve started calling myself a photographer quite recently, around two years ago. My first attempt to image making was through cinematography and film directing but I never got the feeling for scriptwriting. After some frustrations in the film industry where every step of the process is dependent on so many factors, I realized that I can convey the same message, the same story using photography. So I did a little step back and started to work more independently using still images. It gave me more freedom and let me go out of the production system. But again it is a slow process of learning. Even if the medium is similar the language of photography is very different. It allows you to do things that wouldnʼt be understandable in a film sequence but you have to be more precise in every single frame and with your initial concept. I think in photography is even more important how frames are related to one another. Also what kind of story emerges in between but I also like spontaneous and democratic nature of this medium.
Why do you think it is important to exhibit your photography in a book like you did? And what does it mean to you?
In a photo school in Opava we are told to be patient with a book project and donʼt rush. First question is always if the body of work is ready. And later - what is the best way to present this body of work. Various photographic projects work very differently in a book format and in the exhibition space for example. In this case, series and concept came after I collected images so the editing process was almost as important as taking pictures.
The book project was the natural consequence of image collection. Also the size of images in the book is as I want people to see them. They donʼt work as a large prints for instance. As it is my first book Iʼve learned a lot through this process and already know what I would do differently. It is a fact that there is a kind of a trend to produce photo books and zines and printed matter is giving people a breath from digital world of images. At the same time market is oversaturated so you really have to know why you want to make a book. In this case learning process was a big part of my decision. I also financed it with the scholarship so it was easier to make this step. Bookmaking is not cheap.
I started to photograph objects and „traces” of passing time on Berlin staircases when I was working on a bike in a food delivery company. I got an access to the space which remained closed for most of pedestrians. This space also became my main and only destination though I was not crossing people doors. This was the initial idea for „No shoes in the house”.
What brought you to Berlin? Why did you choose it instead of your hometown Warsaw?
It was kind of a harsh episode in my life when I moved from Warsaw to Lozanne to study film directing which I quit very quickly. After that I moved to Berlin where my girlfriend was working at this time. It took few months after I found myself in the new place. Sometimes I come back to this decision and ask myself how would it be if I stayed in Switzerland for my MA. But without this experience probably I wouldnʼt discover photography for myself.
„No shoes in the house”. How does the title go together with your photography and your own mindset?
I wanted to have a strong title but at the same time ambiguous which can refer to the pictures and bring some additional meaning. It is a matter of culture and sometimes depends on the family whether guests can wear shoes or not after crossing the door. Sort of a social rule that you have to follow. In the photos I am looking at staircase as a space between private and public. „No shoes in the house” refers to this transitional moment. It also brings up the feeling of uncertainty when you wonder whether you can stay in the shoes or not.
Your book is supplemented with an essay “Notes on the Matter of Leftovers” by Adam Przywara on inhabiting in post-war Berlin. Why do you think itʼs important to speak of this topic in 2018?
What was interesting during delivery work - the name on the intercom usually did not coincide with the resident. A staircase became an excuse to talk about wider social and spacial case - a flow of people in a big city like Berlin. Together with the designer Pola Salicka we invited our friend, writer and architecture critic - Adam Przywara. We wanted to explore the idea of leftovers in the context of Berlin tenement housing. His previous research focuses on postwar rubble in the capital of Poland, Warsaw but he was studying Berlin example as well. The essay complements photographs but they can also be approached separately and this is exactly how we wanted to work with the text - not only as a description/background for pictures. In my opinion the subject is very relevant when we see how rent fees are going up all over the world and people are pushed to move out from their districts. Inside of the book you can find few loose pages - risograph printed buzzers that move between pages. Sometimes they disturb in reading so you have to move them somewhere else. Leftovers inside of the book.
What are your next artistic goals?
In the end of the year I am finishing my residency in Fabrica Communication Research Centre in Treviso. I will stay in Italy a little bit longer and look for commissions and other residencies. My wish is to develop my photographic language and focus more on editorial and publishing area. At the same time together with a collective/communal garden from Warsaw, Poland we are working on a first issue of krzak papier magazine that we will launch in January 2019. We just closed an open call for projects and texts reflecting in the subject of „WASTE” . Our aim is to explore the meaning of waste from various perspectives. We have quite a few very interesting contributions and I am really looking forward for the final outcome.
https://vimeo.com/291901812
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Near East: Landscape changes in Eastern Poland
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]everal years ago however, that image started to evolve following deep social and economical changes made possible by two developments. First has been the technological revolution that swept through the world reaching even the most remote places, and allowing people constant internet access at their fingertips. Even though this revolution is very much ongoing, one can already see its effect on the way people, especially young people, communicate, learn, play, or just see the world around them.
Second development is Poland joining the European Union in 2004 and starting to receive unprecedented funding channeled largely into infrastructure, environmental, and agricultural projects. These changes acted as a catalyst for profound transformation of Polish landscape.
Young people emigrate to large cities and abroad, seeking better educational or employment opportunities, inevitably changing social structure of small towns and villages. Teenagers, constantly immersed in virtual world of new apps and social media platforms, are often losing touch with their parent's generation, stretching the social fabric of the region even more. Information is reaching people faster than ever, allowing quick dispersion of models in various fields, such as arts, culture, fashion to name only a few.
Urban dwellers, escaping stresses and strains of fast-paced life, are rediscovering unassuming qualities of the area, some just for the weekend getaway, others to put down roots. Downshifting is taking place, slowly but steadily driving land and property prices up.Man's relationship to Nature is beeing altered by growing environmental consciousness and new EU policies introduced. Strict regulations related to environmental protection and agricultural practices are frowned upon and disregarded, at least by those devoted to the old ways.Some local residents are quickly adapting to changing circumbstances. Others are not. We are yet to see what the new Polish landscape will become, and my aim is to follow this transformation as it is taking place.
About the author
Dawid Zieliński was born in 1978. He is a documentary photographer based in Kraków, Poland. Graduated from Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He has been contributing photographer for Magazyn Kontakt since 2016.
Warszawa Centralna
Warszawa Centralna is the primary railway station of the Capital of Poland. It was built as a flagship project of the People's Republic of Poland during the 70ies. Designed as a functionalist architecture building, it is part of a system of public communications that includes an underground gallery labyrinth with food and newspapers stalls that leads to the 8 platforms of the train station. A 500 mt long pedestrian paths connects Warszawa Centralna to the so-called patelnia (frying pan) -the square just outside the Central Metro station in Warsaw.
The station was used as a scenographic element and Federico focused on those people who inhabit it. The train stations are in general a place for fast transit of people, but for beggars, homeless people, buskers and alcoholics (those who permanently live there) is the place where they can beg to survive or to make a living. The work is organized around the portraits of some of these inhabitants and the details of their own lives, like the few coins the were able to collect, the cigarette butts they hunt around, and also some edible urban mushrooms that they find in the bushes around the station.
The pictures were shot in winter 2014, just in this area, and were shot on film, to have as less as possible infrastructures when the author met his subjects.
The final form of Federico’s project WARSZAWA CENTRALNA is a hand made accordion booklet with 55 silver prints dry mounted on its pages. The accordion structure allows the watcher to change and personalize the sequence of the pictures, and to find his own personal narrative and aesthetic rhythm.
About the author:
Federico Caponi was born in Tuscany in 1968, and graduated at the University of Florence in Philosophy. He has been working as stage photographer for Italian and foreigner theatres, and still photographer for TV and movie productions. His pictures were exhibited at “EastStreet” in Lublin (2013), and featured in its catalogue. His work “Bazar Olimpia” was shown at the “So far, so close” exhibition during the 2014 “Cineast” film festival in Luxembourg. Today he lives in Warsaw, Poland, and mostly photographs for advertising, editorial and magazines. He also leads darkroom and analog photography workshops, both in Florence and in Warsaw.
Metanoia: The Catholic Centre for Education and Addiction Therapy
There is some place. Without an address. In the middle of the wood. The walls of the forgotten fabric make it so hard to see. Make it invisible. This is the place, where some kind of people found their asylum. This people couldn't agree with the world. But they really want to. They want to be noticed, appreciated, they want to be loved. They want to feel safe, and start to live on they own way. Without old schematics, buddies, drugs. Converted. Converted for the new way, which help them to leave this place without an address. And this place will help them to make it happend.
There is some place. Without an address. In the middle of the wood. There is no random people in there. No two the same stories. But there is some keys which those people must carry for punishment. Keys which not open any door. There are some stories. But not about the past. They erased the past. Don't want to remember it. Sometimes they have to run away. From the past and from the present. They don't think about what will happen. About tomorrow. They only want to forget. Just for the moment. And get carried away by the moment. And they sometimes think „what will happen if...”. But they always get back to reality. And theirs reality is Metanoia. At least now.
About the author:
Kamil Sleszynski was born in 1982. He lives in Bialystok (Poland), where he works on long term projects focusing on complex relationships between people in isolation. He has been published by the Prison Photography, Prism Photo Magazine, Dienacht Magazine – blog, Document EAST, aCurator – blog, Digital Camera, FK Magazine.
Home Again: a story from Poland
Many people in Poland suffered due to the country's change from communism as most of the state industries suddenly stopped operating.
This left large numbers of unemployed people who turned to migration to seek work and gain a certain measure of security over their lives. However, many do not find this and end up in similar situations to those they were migrating away from; such as homelessness or substance dependency.
A solution for these would be migrants as well as many other people who are facing social exclusion in Poland is an innovative movement being fronted by the Barka Foundation. Polish people who have found themselves in difficulties from all over the world are being offered the chance to live and work in these communities back home. The co-op members are reconnected to a normal and healthy life through community support, accommodation and paid work giving them a new sense of security and purpose.
Barka started as one community of local homeless people who needed support after the fall of communism. During the communist era in Poland a whole generation of people were brought up in a place where the state saw over most business and thus the jobs. After, much of the population struggled to cope with the change to a free market mentality and ended up unemployed. The small original community of twenty five lived communally with Barka's founders – the Sadowska family in a economically self-sustainable farm. This model has now been used in many similar organisations all over Poland and abroad.
The images in this series are a snapshot of these people's lives at the co-ops. The series shows two residential co-ops which were also regenerating building and businesses in the local area. One an old soviet farm - Chudobczyce (skinny dogs) and one a homeless dog shelter run by ex-homeless people - the Wielkopomoc (Great Support) Association Co-Operative.
About the author:
David Shaw was born in 1990 in London. He works internationally as a photographer and journalist and has recently been working on a long term projects in the North of England. His work documents stories long-term based around human rights, social issues and communities worldwide.
www.instagram.com/davidjshawphoto/
Vestige: A story about landscape
"Vestige" is a story about a landscape – the one of a man and of nature. It is an attempt to symbolically translate human emotions into the landscape.
It is an attempt to find out what does connect an external with an internal: patterns, tensions, contradictions, etc. Visually presented metaphors of a man and his condition bring him back to where he comes from – to the nature. “Vestige” is a personal story about instability and relentless sense of loss and demotion. I believe that debris is sometimes the only thing that remains.
About the author:
Pawel Biedrzycki was born in 1990. He lives and works in Warsaw, Poland. He graduate of the Academy of Photography in Warsaw (2012). Currently he is a student of Photography in The Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Lodz.Graduate of Sputnik Photos Collective Mentoring Programme (3rd Edition - 2014). In 2015 he has been choosen to 55 the best young polish photographers "Debuts 2015” by doc! photo magazine. His photographs have been shown at Festival Š.U.N.D. in Belgrade, Serbia.
YOUTH IN POLAND
Youth in Poland: Nonconformists, artists, outsiders, loners, rebels, skaters, homosexuals. Karolina Sekula has been portraying them for nearly ten years. That's her natural environment.
They are not connected by blood ties but by similar values, morality and the need to live fully and for the moment. To live differently than everyone else- nowadays it requires courage and passion. Since the change of political regime in 1989 Poles have been enjoying the country's economic growth but not everyone benefits from it. Young people don't have stable jobs, they are tied up with mortgage or debts and are so anxious about the future that they don't enjoy the present. They exist in uncertainty.
Heros of Karolina's story are different to them, pushing boundaries and experiencing life with our deepest emotions. They know that we've got one life and it's an unique chance.
About the author:
Karolina Sekuła was born in 1984. Polish photographer and picture editor who focuses on the human aspects of social, political and cultural issues. Collaborated with the leading dailies and magazines in Poland (Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita, Przekrój, Sukces, Tygodnik Powszechny Bloomberg Businessweek).
Halfway
A middle-sized city in the center of Poland, halfway between the mountains and the Baltic Sea. Neither rich, nor really poor, with a typical history of a region that is an industrial capital which blossomed in the time of state socialism and lost that position after 1989.
Such places evolve in a very special way. With advancements in technology and funds from the European Union, the look of both the city and the people has been changing. But still, both remain a medley of the past they come from and the effects of modernization, influenced by the local mentality. A halfway state, in between present and past, between east and west, between here and now. "Halfway" has been published as a book by the Instytut Kultury Wizualnej in Warsaw.
About the author:
Patrick Karbowski was Born in 1989. Graduated from the Leon Schiller National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź (M.A. in Photography at the Film and TV Direction Department). His works have been awarded many times (e.g. finalist of the Magnum Expression Award, Photolucida Critical Mass, Lucie Foundation Emerging Scholarship and New York Photo Festival) and exhibited at various festivals in Poland and abroad (Fotofestiwal in Łódź, Encontros da Imagem Braga, Kolga Tbilisi Photo). Currently he also works as a lecturer at the Academy of Photography in Warsaw.
Balancing
Edyta Jabłońska is a 26-year-old photographer from the eastern Poland). She graduated from the socio-cultural animation and art education. A year ago, she graduated from the Academy of Photography in Krakow. She is inspired by both the conceptual photography and documentary. She is delighted with the aesthetics of failure, Iceland and everything connected with it.
The subject of my photos are those people who oscillate between the living and the fictional world. New reality for various reasons, restricts and blocks people. That’s why they flee into the world more favorable for them: the world of dreams, where there are no barriers. In my photographs I used situations from various music videos, movies, campaigns, etc. They were real inspiration for me. By manipulating the frame, light and color I wanted to give seemingly different stories, common thematic context.
Warsaw Nights
Lukasz Nowosadzki is a Polish photographer. He graduated from the University of Warsaw with a master's degrees in Photography (2014) and Public Relations (2008). He was a finalist of International Street Photography Awards, student category, in 2013 and 2014. In 2014 he had his first solo exhibition – images from Warsaw Nights were shown in Starbucks Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. He co-created and works as a Managing Editor in Melba Magazine – an online quarterly devoted to photography and fashion.
We are twenty and thirty years old. We finished school, we are still studying, and working. We are still trying to find our place. We engage ourselves in the arts, while making careers in corporations. We travel to Asia and South America. We have goals, we have dreams. Time flies as quickly as information. We check in at popular places, like our moves, we add tags to our steps. We are not interested in blueprint solutions. Our parents' schemas are not for us. Weddings and kids just not for us. We are still young. Might as well play.
We don't go to fancy clubs that are driven by media and celebrities. We care less about politics and more about alternative culture. And we both have our homes. Alternative Berlin is closer for us than glittering Moscow. We drink cheap vodka and beer in the park, we dance to the same music that our peers do in the west. Weekends are the time when we breathe, when we forget about our problems. During the weekend we try to find love and during the weekend we lose love. And only sometimes returning home late at night on a bus we do feel lonely.
We are living. Lets figure out what happens next. Then again, maybe not.
