Pawel Zak is one of those photographers who, with incredible lightness, can use what the old masters used to call "the light of the image." The repeatedly shown and awarded series of his photos entitled "Stories" is an eloquent example of great visual culture in an artist whose works completely belong to the latest currents in contemporary photography. "Stories" is, in my opinion, a multi-layered "diary" in which at least two worlds overlap: that of childish naivety and innocence, and that of seriously posed adult questions about the meaning of existence of any world at all. All of these images had little to do with any real world; Paul did use real objects in addition to cardboard and scissors, but from a macro perspective, which, along with the out-of-focus and often deep shadows barely accessible to the eye's perception, sends us straight back to a mystery or a fairy tale. Of course, we will never fully know whether this was a praise of childhood or an irreversible act of parting with it... Either way, these fabulously tinted photos have become a permanent part of my private photographic history.
It is very likely that the parting with childhood was exhausting and painful, as it took several years to wait for Paul's new photographs. I'll frankly admit that I was completely surprised when Paul put the photos of flowers in front of me. But it wasn't the flowers that really surprised, but the impression that they were photographs that avoid words.... From there it was only a step to the thought that both series of photographs by Pawel Zak are like a complement to the opposites we meet in Chinese cosmology yin-yang. This unity of opposites is symbolized by a circle, whose halves, light and dark, form an S-shaped border and symbolize to each other the inseparable unity called tai-ki: "the great primordial beginning."
BOOK - PAWEŁ ŻAK, STORIES, DOT 2007 CAN BE PURCHASED
A story is a literary work with a developed plot and a storytelling flow. The absence of words, on the other hand, is silence, defined by the absence of all sounds, silence - figuratively also peace and serenity. And this is probably exactly what I found myself in when looking at photographs of flowers for the first time. So while the childish "Stories" speak of growth and life, the flowers are silent about the opposite: aging,dying, and consequently death. which we come to know in silence and alone. "Stories" is full of byts of diverse, undefinable and rather optimistic colors. Photos of flowers are not monochromatic either, except that these are colors of fading and fatigue - in an entropy of stains and astonishing chemical effects. In "Stories" the problem of time manifested itself in the impossibility of defining where on the axis of its incessant flow their author is situated. Here, time is the time of matter: flowers and photography itself. Paul exposed his negatives in a studio around which herds of jackhammers work like beavers. According to Paul, as a result of the very long exposure times, the vibrations sometimes reached all the way to the delicate flowers and the camera itself, and this is where the blurriness that is sometimes visible to the naked eye comes from. In my opinion, it could also be that at the moment of exposure the flower just died a little and leaned towards death....
Pavel also leads us into other areas of time belonging to the chemical side of photography, just as Jiří Šigut subjects his papers to multi-day exposures, so Pavel Zak develops his prints in multi-hour cycles, each time producing a unique, inimitable result. From the purely photographic, as well as chemical side, this is an illogical and destructive action. At the same time, however, this is how Paul brought out the unknown face of time: the sum total of growth and dying, free of our will, under which there is enough room for anyone willing to create their own world....
Pawel Zak (1965) - studied social sciences at the University of Warsaw. Graduate of the Faculty of Multimedia Communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan (diploma in 2002). Member of the Union of Polish Artists Photographers since 1995, also a photography lecturer since 2001. Husband and father, respected citizen. Exhibits and publishes his works at home and abroad. More important series of works: "Stories" (since 1996), "Untitled" (since 2000), "Close acquaintance" (2002-2004).Works in the collection of the French National Library in Paris and private collections in Poland, France, Norway,Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, UK and USA.
