There is a good chance that I simply have not reached any publications where I would have found a definition of "road photographer" or at least seen the names of photographers and photographers who are attributed to this phenomenon. However, I dare say that such definitions and phrases have already appeared more than once in various records. Also, I am striking a small irony at the all-too-popular idea that everything has already been done. The beauty, however, lies in the fact that this "everything" is unique and this is unquestionable, because, after all, similar does not mean the same and realistically the same cannot be. That is why every time I take great pleasure in looking at photographs and their creators who photograph the provinces of our country.
One such artist is Damian Kolodziejczyk, who resides in the town of Pyzdry, located on the Warta River in Września County. Kolodziejczyk is not only a provincial documentary filmmaker, but first and foremost just a "road photographer." His photos show a carefully chosen and conscious documentary pattern. Photographing small-town spaces, rural and roadside landscapes has become for Kolodziejczyk not only a mission of documentation, which is very strongly felt by such photographers, but also an intimate experience with his original sensitivity, which like a radar leads his eyes often in front of very surreal frames.
The so-called "Polish exoticism" in contemporary photography is, after all, still quite popular and very often laconically used and modified in many forms and statements by visual artists. In Kolodziejczyk's case, however, it is different, because the author does not search with the persistence of a fanatic for absurd shots, which in the final conception of the image would even shout to the viewer, shock or even arouse a mocking reception. Kolodziejczyk does not think of himself as an artist. He is an ephemeral traveler who in no way wants to stigmatize his presence in the space he is in with his camera, much less in the captured frames, but only to document in the most sensitive and non-invasive way possible where his radar has led him.
More photography, less photographer!
That's what Damian Kolodziejczyk's photographs are, and it's definitely a very good choice of path in a world where lately artists have been putting their person in the gallery light more often than their work.
When talking with Damian, one senses an undisguised modesty and humility, and at the same time a great awareness and love for what he does. It is difficult to even persuade him to publish his works or realize an author's exhibition, all the more gratifying that he was willing to share his "photographs from the road" and not only in the pages of "Quarterly Photography".
The photographs of the Pyzdry resident combine classic documentary (the aftermath of elementary photography), which was very popular in Poland in the 1970s and 1980s, and the sophisticated "color composition" of such masters of the genre of American photography as Stephen Shore. This intuitive combination, which stems from the author's authenticity, gives us subtle, colorful images that, despite their quite often abstract narrative, are set in very disciplined compositions. The absence of the human figure in his photographs is a strong and recurring motif that Kolodziejczyk also uses to keep the content and neatness in the frame undisturbed. However, as in most cases of documentary photography, these are nevertheless stories about people and everyday life, and this subject is an inexhaustible source in photography, which does not mean boring and unimportant, on the contrary.
I think that with technology advancing very rapidly, "provincial documentary photography" will be even more valuable in the future. I would also like to emphasize that, in my perception, a "provincial photographer" is not just a man with a camera who photographs, colloquially speaking, the province, but, above all, a photographer who is beyond the hustle and bustle of overflowing creative forms and blinding artistic chaos that impairs a pure and sensitive vision of reality. That is why the radar I mentioned above is still strong and fueled by blood that is not spoiled by commercialism or "stiff collar" salons.
In the photographs on display, we can also see the photographed town where the cinematographer lives. It's a typical Kolodziejczyk frame, neat, clean and at the same time more associated with Scandinavian spaces than with the town of Pyzdry. The logo of a well-known restaurant serving burgers that looks out from behind the trees is one of those photos that one reads, not just looks at. The branches visible in the photo are like agitated waves, like a growing fence of nature that repays man. It foreshadows his end and what he is so close to, what he has become. Two "black gates", an excavator and coal - this photograph is like a prophecy, like an omen of yesteryear, and today a symbol of current events in the country. Intertwining vehicles such as the "Polish Maluszek," a favorite of the communist regime, and at the same time, in the same village, a classic American machine - worlds blend in such a small space, and this is worthy of immortalization. Tractors are still used to go shopping, even to markets, and cars are resurrected to new roles, new characters - they become, for example, a flowerpot. This is just a small sampling from the archives of the photographer whose selected images we have the pleasure of seeing here.
My brief references to selected photographs may even be purely a subjective feeling, or even a pictorial over-interpretation, but isn't that what makes photography more than...?
That's why you should have great respect for "road photographers," who are often low-key, shy people who do beautiful and important things. They appear for a moment, grab something in the frame that we can't see, and disappear.
Quite a long time ago I heard a certain phrase from a photographer friend of mine who had this opportunity to take pictures practically all over the world. He told me then that the hardest thing to do is to take pictures in your own backyard, and if over the years you are able to rediscover this backyard again and again and show it in a unique way, then you are the one who deserves praise, and not someone whose exotic shots of a wild tribe in the Amazon or the neon cosmos of Japanese metropolises even push themselves in front of the lens. Therefore, one should have great respect for "photographers of the road", provincials who do beautiful and important things, and their work is much more interesting than that encountered even in established galleries. They are wonderful people with amazing photographic archives, paying attention to what we no longer see. Undeterred by the glitz, they simply do their own thing, seemingly just for themselves.
Damian Kolodziejczyk understands perfectly the importance of his own photography and has long since chosen "his path" on which he will pursue photographic journeys, full of humility and great feelings towards the world that is passing, not only in the mirror of his car.
***
Damian Kolodziejczyk - born 1988, lives in Pyzdry, photographer, documentary filmmaker.
2020 Dreams - Children of Wrzesnia Museum in Września, Poland.
2020 In the footsteps of the masters - Tadeusz Wanski, Winna Gora
2018 Moment/Gajda, WOK Września
2017 Traces, home self-portrait, Jaworzno OFF
2017 Mosses, Sebastianowo, Charlub. Fifth look, Książ Wielkopolski
2017 Traces, domestic self-portrait, WOK Września
2016 Waiting Room, WOK Września
2016 Wlośjewki. Traces of change, Książ Wielkopolski
2016 Waiting Room, Fotocooltura, Oborniki Wielkopolskie
2011 Fotoigrce, Gniezno
1 Komentarz
Viola
(...) they are often low-headed, shy people, and doing beautiful and important things. They appear for a moment, grab something in the frame that we can't see, and disappear (...)
this sentence is a gem, thank you!