Sometimes I wonder whether the guy with a camera in his hand that is a street photographer is an intruder for locals?
As far as I know, there are many opinions about this theme. Some people would say that a photographer walking down the usual suburbs is an intruder who wants to steal something from locals. Does he want to take some material things? I do not think so. I believe that many people are afraid that the photographer wants to steal privacy from others. When we see photographers at attractive-tourist locations, no one is surprised that there are people with cameras in their hands. Contrary to the mundane, boring suburbs of big cities.
While walking through the day-to-day streets of Warsaw, I noticed, throughout years of active street-photographing, that many people wonder what this guy is doing here, with a camera in his hand.
I believe that some of them see in me an intruder who invaded “their” little homeland. Still, I do think that I am not an intruder. I see myself, as a street-photographer, as someone who wants to give something to locals. I want to memorize their usual surroundings and leave views from posterity. Do we perceive today Eugene Atget, Garry Winogrand, or Henri Cartier-Bresson as intruders or famous worldwide photographers without whom there would be a black hole in art history? The answer is obvious.
My dream is to make Warsaw one of the most artistic recognizable (thanks to my photographs) city worldwide.
While walking on the streets of Warsaw, I do not ask myself what city could give to develop my passion (e.g., they could provide me the opportunity to present my photographs on the exhibition). Indeed, I ask myself what I could give to the city by myself. My pictures and works of art (like “Negation of the End,” or “Living in Poland”) is the best thing I can do for the city and the posterity. If someone in the meantime would call me an intruder wanting to steal privacy for them? Well, I will smile only gently.
