The article appeared in No. 48 of "Fotografia Quarterly" - is available for purchase here
When I was 16, photographs were developed in the darkroom and films were put into the camera. I didn't go anywhere without my Zenith E. I experimented a lot. The years passed. Cameras changed. The subjects of photographs did, too.
I grew up among modern art. On top of that, I have always loved walking through museums and modern art galleries. Communing with canvases, prints is very inspiring for me. Each new exhibition saturates my mind with the worlds created by the masters. This pays off when I go out into the city with my camera.
When photographing architecture, sometimes I focus on the whole block, sometimes on the detail. Sometimes a particular shape is important to me, other times it's about capturing light or material texture. Some photos are very contrasting, almost like graphics, while others are subtle. I try to make the final photo an artwork, not a document. In some of my photos, the viewer knows exactly what they are looking at. It is a literal representation of the building, including its functionality. Other photos can be viewed as pure abstraction.
Why black and white? This way I cut the viewer off from the cacophony of colors. All the advertisements, street signs or the pink bicycle on the balcony would only distract. The green flower bed on the balcony, thus becomes another monochromatic form that I include in my composition.
When taking a photo, I arrange a concept in my head - I determine what will be the "hero" of the photo. When I stand in front of the building I look at it through the viewfinder. I don't photograph it yet. I dissect, analyze, choose. I turn around my axis. I change my perspective. Sometimes I look up through the lens, even behind me. I search. When I find - I press the shutter button. I check that I have registered what I had in my mind.
When creating successive works, I never refer to earlier works. Each photograph is a self-contained entity. This is how the series was created City study.
Jacek Durski
