Don’t ask what your town can do for you. Ask yourself what you can give to your city.
I do not expect Warsaw’s authorities to organize my photographic exhibitions or provide other benefits, grants, and money. I do not want anything from the city I love. What I hope to do is to make Warsaw and its citizens great again. I often daydream that my photos become part of the canon of history related to photography. When people think about Warsaw, I would like to make them in the future automatically come up with my name. Let it work the other way too. When posterity hears “Adam Mazek,” I would like Poland’s capital to come to mind for most of them.
The fact is that I can imagine that people interested in broadly defined art who live in New York City, London, or Tokyo, within next decades, when they hear “Warsaw,” they will see in their imagination my pictures.
This is what I want to give to Warsaw. I would say that I want to make Warsaw a famous city. I do not expect anything from the capital of Poland. Warsaw deserves the best things that its citizens can give to the town. Why? Because it is the city that survived its own death. If you do not know what I mean, better google the “Warsaw uprising 1944” phrase. The fact is that the capital of Poland had, among others, a bloody and horrific past. I want to give this city a bright future. I do hope that Warsaw becomes the most powerful city not only locally and regionally but also worldwide.
Moreover, I want this city to be powerful economically, thanks to the hardworking society and artistically recognizable metropolis. That’s why I do not ask what I can get from the city. I want to give Warsaw as much splendor as possible.
