"Boxing is not chess - here you have to think". - this golden thought of Jerzy Kulej, Olympic boxing champion from many years ago, has gone down in history not only of funny sayings of athletes. It was so surprising and "improbable" that it prompted ... thinking, which, however, does not have to be boxing.
Michal Lewandowski is a chess player, but also a photographer with a love for nature, who uses a camera and computer programs to create images designed to help him tame man's innate sense of loneliness. He does this by placing an "ordinary" documentary photograph of a forest on the left, while on the right he adds a digital processing of the same photograph, whereby, thanks to the use of appropriate filters, the realistic character of the original photograph is completely lost. The digitized forest ceases to be a forest and becomes a completely abstract representation, retaining only the color palette from the original. These representations on the right resemble kaleidoscope paintings, mandalas, and in still others geometrized, but not necessarily symmetrical, variations and fractals on the forest theme. The result is an unsettling panorama, because it is heterogeneous in meaning, for the viewing of which we must use not only our eyes, but also the thinking evoked at the beginning. Humorously, then, let's note that Jerzy Kulej was not quite right, because chess players, and on top of that chess-photographers, also have to think.
So much for the editorial, let's read what the author himself says about his photography:
My name is Michal Lewandowski. I have been a photographer for more than a dozen years. I am interested in creating artistic photo series and photographing nature. I live close to the forest, so almost every day on walks I photograph the reality around me. I love to create new photographs, and I often use various computer programs to create my own vision of the world around me. I am a very patient man, I have devoted a large part of my life to playing chess. I have won many awards in national, but also in international competitions. I draw inspiration from nature, classical music, as well as fine arts.
"Complex states of consciousness" - each of us experiences loneliness in different ways. Living in a big city or a small village, we experience its presence. It is a mystery that is difficult to understand. Despite the fact that we pass hundreds and sometimes thousands of people every day, we remain lonely people. Most often we realize this only after some time. Once man lived in caves and formed small communities. He understood his loneliness much better than in modern times and tried to share his life with other members of tribal groups. Living today in big cities, we are immersed in our smartphones, we are constantly on the move and slowly losing our sense of connection with other people.
We also lose our connection with nature, which we no longer understand. We are unable to accept the phenomena that occur in it. We are moving further and further away from the reality that surrounds us. While we know how to create sidewalks and streets, we can no longer build proper relationships with other people and nature. Passing trees on the highway, we are cut off from them. Similarly, in the city, we have no way to get on the lawn, we don't have our own gardens. We try to cheat loneliness by getting a pet - a cat or a dog. Living in the city, we are doomed to loneliness, but not silence. We only notice the solitude of silence when we are alone, when we don't have a smartphone and contemplate our lives without a third party or admire art. That's what this series is about. Through art we get to the deep core of consciousness. This leads us to discover the solitude that is within us, which does not overwhelm us, but helps us to make decisions boldly and courageously. Through art we open up to our inner self, break through to our deep self and allow the quiet presence of photography to penetrate us. The works on display describe nature as an entity independent of culture. Some landscapes are daydreams. They refer to Jung and his philosophy of the subconscious. In each of us, after a time of peace, there is a deep inner war, whether for values or a sense of independence. Each of us experiences this war in our own way.
The landscapes depicted show our inner, often very complex states of consciousness. It is not uncommon for us to have no control over what information we receive from other people and how much we pollute our inner self with it, shattering our inner peace. This exacerbates feelings of emptiness and loneliness. This truth is illustrated by landscapes, our inner well is in constant need of new content. The reflections that occur in it are our calling card.
Michal Lewandowski (1994) - photographer, graduate of the Warsaw School of Photography and the Academy of Social and Media Culture in Toruń
