Why do I not make colorful, postcard pictures of Warsaw? For me, such images are a mask for the city.
I believe that practically all the cities and all the people possess some masks. Every one of us dons those masks almost every day. We often behave in the way we would like to be seen by others. I think that it is quite a natural process. I believe that we do not have to regret that we do that. Moreover, I am sure that putting the masks on our behavior, appearance, attitude, and so on during our day-to-day activities helps us blend into the crowd. It helps us adapt to the surrounding us, reality.
If we did not do that, society as a whole would go into chaos in a short time.
We have to possess some mask to cooperate with other people. I accepted this fact. I think that it is quite normal behavior. One of the proper proofs that we possess masks is our profile on social media websites. Everyone who owns this kind of account aims to present himself in the way he/she would like to be seen by others. I think that we rarely take off our masks.
In general, I indirectly channel this post to Fyodor Dostoyevski’s literary legacy. I believe that all his artworks made a worldwide success because he wrote about people’s behaviors without the Mask.
The Mask did not interest him at all. He was interested in describing people’s minds and souls in possible non-fiction unmasked ways. Dostoyevski made a surgical intervention on people’s souls. Famous Russian writer showed us the soul’s and mind’s innards. He could reach people’s darkest parts of the psyche with the same precision as a surgeon can enter people’s innards.
Back to the first question: now I hope you understand why I do not make beautiful Warsaw pictures. Old Town and other magical parts of the city I leave to other photographers. What’s intriguing to me in this city are its innards. I want to get to know the darkest parts of this city. That’s why my pictures are black and white, often without the people.
Moreover, it is one reason I do photographs in the usual, mundane, often ugly places.
Garbage is also the innards of my city. That’s why I do photograph them quite often. I want to take a closer visual look at the city’s soul in the same as Dostoyevski did with the other people’s darkest parts of the soul and mind. I take the Mask off the face of my city, and I stare at Warsaw’s mundane dirt by the prism of the lens.
