What is born through Titus Poplawski's discipline and sensitivity definitely carries "beauty proper". His photographs not only seduce with visual magnetism, but say something more to us and about ourselves. They are an example of composite beauty, which we can explore and discover by penetrating the various layers, encountering that "proper" beauty for the author and viewer, which, when confronted, springs from subjective waters to the shores of universal content about the human being.
When I close my eyelids and open them after a while, I am again between dream and waking. Memory recalls and superimposes subjective feelings on what I see. The subconscious invites snippets of movies, dreams and what my eyes have encountered in various places into reality. I open my eyelids once again and see photographs in which a girl is crying with light, other figures are "sunk in the frames", they are not looking at me.
Titus Poplawski's photographs create a narrative between what one sees and what one sees again when one opens one's eyes once more. These non-obvious stories presented in rather surreal frames only strike the viewer with their "superficial beauty" in the first impression. This "superficial beauty" ceases to exist when looking at them for a longer time, entering the photograph. Thus, there appears a "proper beauty," a revealing beauty that makes the photograph multi-layered. This is the main source of the "unobvious" in photographs, which attracts the explorer of the image to understand the point of view of the creator of this world, as well as his own insights.
The first layer is the immediate visual reception. Thanks to the aesthetics that the author follows in his works, we notice the primary and powerful effect of the images on the viewer through their visual appeal. The next layer is the remarkable composition, where we see that each element forms a non-accidental whole in terms of frame construction (light, proportion, setting) and narrative. Here, there is no room for any anomaly to emerge from the constituent elements of the whole to interfere with what the photographer has conceived. Confirmation of this awareness of the image is provided by carefully set frames like in Roy Andersson's films, as we can see in the works on display. Encountering another layer, we perceive the deeper contents contained in it, the stories the artist wants to share with us. However, they are given to us in such a way that we ourselves begin to co-create through it the world to which we have been invited. Thanks to this, Poplawski's photographs even force us to confront not only his visions, but also what we discover in them ourselves.
The author knows very well what he is doing, he is aware of layering "his layers". As he says himself, in portraying people he is attracted to the imperfection of man and his relationship with people and spaces. The symbiosis created by people and places and the way of recording this phenomenon with analog materials has become Poplawski's guideline in composing the frame. Photographing on film allows him to complete the whole he creates - it is a kind of artistic contribution, which is often unobvious, surprising, but by its very nature fits in with what he wants to achieve.
Poplawski's works are like windows at which we stand curious for a while, and then we want to go out through them and touch the "living photograph." We even want to take a walk in a given photograph and look at it from all sides, because it arouses constant curiosity and makes us look at the stories contained therein. In most of the works he creates, we notice that the figures never look in our direction. Through this, too, the people photographed do not become more important than the photo itself and do not absorb all the attention on themselves. This makes us feel as if someone has stopped the film, and our gaze can meticulously and slowly move across the frame and give all the attention to this almost theatrical figure. Among other things, this is what distinguishes Titus' work from many similar photographs. Besides, his very creative approach from idea to realization is the aftermath of a higher sensibility. Asking Poplawski about this, he wrote: Ideas for photos, in let's call it "narrative photography," in a sense are a litmus test of our sensitivity, and we build it throughout our lives. Throughout our lives we absorb the world around us, space, people and their art, and this is probably the main source of my inspiration.
I create my own imaginary worlds and stories in my paintings. I often transfer my actions to some unreal dream world. This world has no boundaries and allows my fantasies to flow. I like it when a photograph leaves a large margin of understatement and allows the viewer to interpret the image. I try to create photography that can be read, perceived in many ways, photography that is a metaphor for the story of a person. When taking photos I generally shape space and light, I work a lot with artificial lighting, I like long shutter speeds. The people in front of the lens have to freeze in stillness as I set the smallest details and gestures, I am certainly not a speed demon. A project/session is usually twelve photos (a roll of medium format), they are created as one cohesive story, but not the whole as a series is my goal, and although it can be presented as a whole, the ideal effect is when one photo from the whole will tell the whole and will be worth paying attention to and staying for a while.
Standing at the window, I stare at the young dream, a pristine light that slowly reveals to me a world not yet obvious. Through the square window, more and more can be seen with time. Unhurriedly, captivating colors appear, then shapes. Figures become clearer, fill with light, gain substance. Then the window turns into a mirror that always asks us. I walk through it to no longer just look. This is how Titus Poplawski's photographs are viewed
The author, who so precisely sets the views in "his windows," has also attempted to translate his stories into a broader frame. It is highly likely that not many people associate Poplawski with his panoramic works. I am convinced that they are also worth presenting and taking a revealing walk in them.
Titus Poplawski - Born in 1972, he is an analog photographer. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Wrocław University of Technology, and perhaps because of this he believes that composition is one of the most important elements of any photograph. His main avenue of expression and the subject of his photographs are people, and for many years he was involved in portraiture in the broadest sense. In recent years he has focused on narrative photography, which in this case is a metaphor telling the story of Man and the space around him. As he says, working with photographic film gives much more satisfaction and conformity in his creative processes. He has been awarded many times at photography competitions. His works could be seen in exhibitions in Poland, Paris, Milan and New York. He has won many international awards such as Tokyo International Foto Awards and IPA (New York).
