“Il mondo in bianco e nero” ( The world in black and white), is a personal space dedicated to my photographic notebook.
I believe, that photography existed in my life as far as I can go back in memory.
My father was a photographer. When I was a kid I held him the secondary flash sometimes when he shot portraits of celebrities in our small rooftop apartment in Warsaw. I was 14 when he divorced my mother and moved out. At that point I felt free to begin taking photos on my own.
I grew up looking at black and white images, while watching my father expose prints under the enlarger and develop them in big tanks under green or orange lights. The typical look of these prints, was one produced by medium format negatives, shot with professional cameras on traditional silver halide film . That rich tonality and non intrusive grain, has formed my subconscious inner image of how a photograph should look like. Even if I’ve dabbed with colour in my youth, it was never anything “serious”.
Now, that film has become something of an alternative process, I like the idea of staying with a mature and well defined art, and concentrate on making it work at best.
I have used and largely continue using the following camera formats and brands:
18x24mm – Olympus Pen F
24x36mm – Contax SLR, Leica M and R, Nikon F, Olympus OM, Minolta, Pentax, Zeiss Ikon ZM and SW
24x59mm – Widelux
6×4.5cm – Bronica RF, Contax, Pentax
6x6cm – Pentacon Six, Rolleiflex and Rolleicord TLR, Mamiya TLR, Minolta Autocord, Hasselblad V and F, Holga, pinholes and zone plates
6x7cm – Linhof, Pentax
6x9cm – Linhof, Agfa pinhole, Box cameras
I intentionally desire that my images end up as well crafted archival prints, which I mat personally on museum grade material, taking care to produce an object which is destined to have a physical presence in time, and can be viewed with ease.
Through looking at my own photographs, I have often surprised myself to notice how my inner attitudes transpire in the images. When I was 17, I had a great fortune to study in a college set up with the scope of promoting international understanding, and ultimately fostering a united world. Fast forward four decades and here I am, more convinced than ever, that this idea, born much ahead of its time, is not only still valid, but even necessary.
This is why this will be now my photographic logo:
Soon after starting this blog, I’ve decided to link each photograph with a piece of music. Music, mainly Jazz, makes permanent part of my living landscape, and I like to think that if you listen and look at the photographs at the same time, you will be able to get closer to my frame of mind.
Photography is my extra lung, it allows me to breathe more freely and communicate with the world. It is a mental tonic, which gives me a lot of energy and satisfaction.
As Henri Matisse once said: “Work cures everything”.
Marek Fogiel